Cat's Eye
by AnonymousInsomnia
Summary: Steven Quartz Universe has a good life. It's nice and peaceful in Beach City, and so far, he's had nothing to worry about in a very long time. However, that all changes when he finds a strange, dark-haired girl with bright yellow eyes one day in the Warp.
1. Chapter 1: It Came from the Warp

**Okay, I promise I'm going to work on Displacement next, but I had this idea stuck in my head for so long that I just _had_ to get it put to paper. Here's the first chapter of Steven's Huntress. I don't own RWBY, or work at RT, and SU is not mine, as much as I might wish it was. I do not profess to try to make money from this thing, it's just fun to do. **

* * *

I woke up cold.

No, not like in a cold sweat, or like I felt mentally cold, as if I'd done something horrible (though I _had_ done that, don't you mind), but _literally_ cold. My skin was long past erupting into gooseflesh and I could swear that my blood had turned to something resembling pebbles of ice in my veins. Numbly, I felt my body curl in on itself into a ball in pure instinctive reflex, feeling myself shiver as my muscles spasmed in a futile attempt to warm my body up. I could barely breathe, and from what I could tell, I was also floating in the air somehow.

With a grunt, I tried to force my eyes open in order to see what was going on. It took me a couple of tries, but eventually I forced my eyelids through a layer of frost that had apparently built up there from the cold.

I saw darkness. All around me, there was naught but a sea of blackness, only permeated with little pinpricks of light that I might've guessed were stars, had I assumed I was in space. However, that was impossible, as man hadn't made it outside Remnant's atmosphere anyway.

Right?

I could feel my mind start to shut down as a haze of inky dark spread out over my mental faculties. I was probably sure that I was hallucinating at that point. Maybe it was the cold. Maybe it was the lack of oxygen. Maybe my Aura was gone and I was just too tired to go on at that point, but taking a nice, long nap seemed like a pretty good idea. Maybe dying of hypothermia wasn't as bad as people made it out to be?

I closed my eyes and shuddered one last time before slowly consciousness faded and a dreamless sleep took hold of my brain like a sheet of metal in a vice.

* * *

"Ah-CHOO!"

The youngest Crystal Gem, a 13-year-old boy named Steven Quartz Universe, found himself propelled up through the Warp Stream from the force of his sneeze. In the microgravity environment of the Warp, it was enough to push him along and out of the Warp Stream that he and the other Gems had been using as transportation. His head poked through the magical energies of the stream and he started panicking for but a second.

"Waah! Wha?" the half-Gem hybrid exclaimed, only to stop as he saw the beauty of the Warp beyond the stream. "Whoa."

From here the young Gem saw numerous roiling black thunderclouds caressing the extradimensional void filled with strange lights of mysterious origin. He could even see and faintly hear lightning and thunder erupting from one of the clouds in the distance.

However, for as much as it was an awesome sight, the young Crystal Gem took notice of something else: a dark, vaguely humanoid shape floating just outside the stream, covered in little icicles and frost and a white piece of cloth that somewhat resembled a jacket.

Before he could take a closer look, however, he felt himself being yanked back by a force behind him. He looked behind him to find the resident worrywart of the team: Pearl. The _much_ older Gem looked like she was on the verge of a panic attack, and appeared to be trying to calm herself by inspecting every inch of Steven's form for damage.

"Careful! It's dangerous to stick your head out of the stream!" she admonished, coming down from her panicked state.

"There's not much air, and it's _very_ cold," added Garnet, the stoic de-facto leader of the Crystal Gems. She reached over as she was saying this and flicked some snot off of Steven's rather cold nostrils.

"Wait! Wait, you guys! I saw something out there!" Steven cut in, clearly excited by whatever he had found in the expanse.

"What?" Pearl asked incredulously.

"Something just... floating out there! It looked kind of like a person with a white coat!"

"Steven, that's not possible. Is your vision blurry from the pollen?"

"I can see perfectly," he squinted, "Pearl. I know I saw something out there!"

"There's nothing out there, Steven," answered Garnet, "There hasn't been anything out there for a long, long time."

"But what if there _is_?!" Steven was almost shouting at this point, "What if there's really someone out there; someone who _needs_ our help out there because they're _lost_ and alone and it's too cold, and-!" The young Gem was cut off by Garnet, who had gently placed her hand over his mouth.

"If it helps, we can check, just to be sure. After all, what protectors of the innocent would we be if we left someone at the mercy of something as dangerous as the Warp?" Steven nodded along, stars in his eyes as he mentally rejoiced at the large Gem's approval of his suggestion.

* * *

The Crystal Gems' heads, sans Steven's, emerged from the light-coloured Warp Stream, warping the light streaming around their heads and necks. Garnet's, Amethyst's, and Pearl's gazes all swept through the void, attempting to locate the figure that Steven had described. Some of them searched more halfheartedly than others, until they eventually found it.

Pearl let out a little surprised gasp when she caught sight of it, and the other two, with heads on a swivel, locked their gazes onto an unmoving form, moving weightlessly through the empty space of the Warp. Pearl let the milky-coloured gem on her forehead shine as a makeshift lamp, illuminating the dark form before them.

It appeared to be a late-teenage human girl, with long, flowing jet-black hair and a black bow atop her head, wearing a long white coat, curled up into a fetal position, presumably in an attempt to keep warm. A large gray duffel bag hung from her shoulder. Pearl's arm emerged from the warp and came to rest over her mouth, in order to stifle a shocked gasp that she dared not utter. The three feared for the worst, but slowly relaxed when they noticed little puffs of vapor emerging from her mouth. She was still breathing. That was a good sign, right?

"Garnet," Pearl said, voice barely above a whisper. Garnet, with her perfect poker face, said nothing, instead nodding at her comrade.

Garnet's arms emerged from the Warp Stream and started to glow. Then they stretched and contorted as a result of her shapeshifting ability, and reached out to the girl. Her limbs pulled the unconscious young woman into the safety and warmth of the Warp Stream, and she seemed to relax a bit once her body had started to warm itself up.

Steven Universe went wide-eyed at the new arrival and he felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Is she...?"

"No. She was breathing. She just needs to get warm, 's all," answered Garnet. Steven let out the breath that he didn't realize he'd been holding.

"Well it's a good thing you let us know that you saw something, little man," Amethyst remarked, "Who knows what could've happened to a human being out in the Warp?"

"Well, it won't do anyone any good to just stay here prattling on about it. We need to make certain that she'll be alright before anything else, for the time being. It _is_ our job to be the guardians of humanity, after all." Pearl gave the girl, still curled up in Garnet's arms, one last glance as the Warp Stream fell away around them and once again the Gems found themselves inside Steven's Beach House once more.

None of the Crystal Gems noticed another Warp Stream in Warp Space appear, dragging along a small, dark, spherical shape.

* * *

Well dying _sucked_.

At least I think it sucked. I kinda passed out during that part. I guess I wouldn't really know what dying feels like, huh? I mean, I expect dying to be a painful affair, able to be described with phrases such as "like dozens of tiny knives piercing every inch of my flesh" and "an oncoming train of freezing chill permeated my being as blood leaked out of a gaping hole in my stomach" and the like. What I didn't expect was feeling like shit _afterwards_.

My whole body ached and my limbs were numb. My thoughts raced back to my last memories before my world turned black, and I realized that the numbness probably came from the cold that I'd felt in that weird void. The funny thing was, I didn't _feel_ cold anymore. In fact, I was _warm_ , and I was lying down, sandwiched between something very soft and something _even softer_.

I also heard voices.

" _How is she doing? Do you think she'll be alright?_ "

" _We can't really do anymore for her right now, Steven._ "

" _Garnet's right. The best we can hope for is that she won't slip into a coma._ "

" _Eh, she'll probably be fine, we just gotta give her time._ "

The voices- one high-pitched male, young, and three distinct female ones- I heard clearly and distinctly now. They sounded concerned. I think they were talking about _me_. Especially that Steven one, maybe followed by that higher-pitched one after him. I didn't recognize them at all.

I figured that now was a good time to start becoming fully cognizant. With a small groan, my eyelids fluttered open and shut and I started making the motions to rise from off my back.

I heard Steven's voice again.

" _Hey guys! She's waking up!_ "

I groaned again as I felt a few joints pop in response to my body rising into a sitting position. With effort, I slowly forced my eyelids open and blinked away the bluriness from my sight. When my sight cleared, I found myself less than half a foot away from a very pale, very smooth, and admittedly somewhat chubby boy with dark hair. It was definitely a face I didn't recognize.

"Hey there! Are you okay?" he innocently asked.

I wasn't very proud of when, just then my instincts, both as those of a fighter, and as a feline faunus, took over. I let out a startled yelp, yanked the soft pink quilt from my body, and threw it at the young face before me. He fell down in a tumbling mess, attempting to untangle himself from the bedspread as I jumped back and away from the sofa someone had laid me down on. I felt my bare feet hit a wooden floor, and I tracked my eyes around the room. My eyes went over a thin, storklike woman wearing an outfit that wouldn't look out of place in a ballerina studio, a short, somewhat plump woman- who was _purple_? I actually did a double take just to make sure I wasn't seeing things- with a mane of whitish hair, and a woman even taller than the first, with a considerably darker complexion, a square afro, and shades. The first two seemed to be moving into action in response to my reaction, and the third seemed to be doing little other than tensing her stance a little. I mostly ignored them for now, aside from their positions relative to me and their movements, combat-wise. I searched for something else.

I found my duffel full of Dust, some of my meager possessions, and my missing boots and stockings lying, side-by-side, with my weapon's carrying strap, on a wooden coffee table right next to the sofa I'd regained consciousness on, but that wasn't what I was looking for.

My eyes finally settled on my prize. A black cleaver-like sword hung from the circular knob of a cabinet, from a black ribbon, in what appeared to be the kitchen of what seemed to be a large wooden beach house.

My weapon: Gambol Shroud.

I pelted off towards it. The tall one raised some sort of pale spear in my way, but I just rolled under it. The purple one then tried to use some sort of whip to ensnare my leg, but the moment I felt it close around on my ankle, I tugged on my Semblance and left behind one of my signature shadow clones to take the fall. In just a couple of quick strides, I'd reached Gambol Shroud. With a quick tug, I pulled it free from its perch and I unsheathed it in one smooth motion, holding the sheath in my off hand and Gambol Shroud's katana form in my right. I shifted it into its pistol form and trained it upon the other occupants of the room.

The two women that attempted to restrain me were holding their weapons- yeah, that was definitely a spear and a whip- in defensive positions, while the one who stayed her hand was in the same position as before, just with large red gauntlets adorned with a single golden star each on her hands. They each had looks of shock plastered on their faces, but that was slowly being banished by an expression of determination.

The bundle of cloth and young boy managed to finally sort itself out.

"Wait guys! Everyone calm down!" he shouted at us.

"Who the hell are you people?!" I shouted back. "How did I get here?!"

"Look," said the purple one, "We know you're probably _very_ confused right now, but we need you to stop pointing that at us." She glanced pointedly at my weapon, and I gave her a look. She nodded, almost imperceptibly, at me. The others mirrored her action, to a degree, when I glanced at them, and _very slowly_ , I shifted the weapon back into its katana form, noting that the three strange women had done away with their weapons. Where had they gone? I returned Gambol Shroud to its sheath with a _Click!_ of metal-on-metal, and held it at my side, where hopefully it would look harder to draw.

At least, it would _look_ that way. If my time in the White Fang had told me anything, it was that one should _always_ have a backup plan, preferably without the other party knowing about it.

Then again, these people _had_ saved me from whatever hellish place I'd gotten myself in that time, warmed me up, and taken me into their home.

That was good. Sometimes people didn't like helping each other if they had animal parts, like yours truly.

"So," I finally said, "Who are you? Where am I?"

It was the young kid who answered me. "You're in my house! We're the Crystal Gems! We protect humanity from monsters and things that go bump in the night! If you're evil and you're on the rise, you can count on the four of us taking you down!" he responded, almost _singing_ the last sentence.

I couldn't help it. I giggled. The kid gave me a sheepish grin, and said, "Yeah, kinda selling it a bit much, huh?" I shrugged. He shrugged back, then introduced me to the three strange women in the room. The tall one was Garnet, the skinny one was Pearl, and the purple one was Amethyst. Normal enough names, especially if you're like me, and you're used to names like Neptune and Ruby running around in your life.

"And my name's Steven Universe!" he finished, approaching me and extending a hand, "What's yours?"

I noticed Pearl and Amethyst visibly tense up when Steven approached me, so I gave them all my best "I totally didn't just point a gun at you less than a few minutes ago" smile and shook his outstretched hand. "Blake. Blake Belladonna."

"So where, exactly, am I?" I repeated.

"You're in Beach City! It's a nice, sleepy town right on the coast of Delmarva, in the good ol' US of A!" Steven was certainly... enthusiastic about his home, that was for sure.

"Geography isn't exactly my strong suit, but may I ask what Kingdom the 'US of A' is in?" I tried for politeness, but only got confusion in return.

"Kingdom?" Steven asked.

"Atlas?" I tried, "Vacuo? Mistral? Vale? No?"

Steven shook his head. He turned to Pearl. "Pearl?" he inquired.

It was Pearl's turn to be confused. She shook her head, too. "I've never heard of any human civilizations like that."

" _Remnant_?"

Steven shrugged. Pearl shook her head.

My jaw kind of dropped at that. "What? Wait-waitwaitwaitwaitwait. _What?!_ "

Suddenly, a _very_ audible growling sound rumbled through Steven's quaint little beach home. Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst gripped their weapons tightly in clenched fists (or _on_ clenched fists) and scanned the area for threats. I felt heat creep into my face though, as I knew _exactly_ where that sound came from.

I clutched my stomach as a very tiny sliver of pain shot through it. I grimaced, and I saw Steven wince in sympathy.

"Sorry," I said sheepishly. I'd been kind of on the run since escaping my former allies, and food wasn't exactly easy to come by when you were already being offered scant amounts of Dust for insane prices. I hadn't eaten much but scraps for the past couple of days, at least. My Aura was keeping me from dying, but eventually, I would need to put _something_ in me to keep my body from cannibalizing itself for nutrients.

Steven gave Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst a sort of "I told you so" look.

"Why don't we go down to the boardwalk? There's some restaurants there, and you might want to talk over food, right?" I opened my mouth to wholeheartedly agree-

"Steven! What are you thinking?!"

-but then Pearl interrupted me. Both Amethyst and I sighed at her.

"Look, chill out, P. He'll be fine-"

"Miss Belladonna threatened us with a _weapon_ no less than five minutes ago!"

"-Because I'm going with them to keep an eye out, okay? Sheesh, Pearl..."

Pearl looked like she was going to say something more, but she stopped when Garnet placed a hand on the skinny woman's shoulder. "They'll be fine," she calmly said.

Pearl released a sigh, dripping of weariness and exasperation, before finally agreeing. "Okay."

"WOOO! Let's go, Amethyst! Blake!"

"You know it, Ste-man!"

There really wasn't much I could do to refuse them, especially when they were offering my starving ass food, so I just strapped Gambol Shroud to my back and shouldered my duffel and slipped on my stockings and boots as I followed Steven and Amethyst out the door. My extra ears twitched as they caught something that Pearl muttered under her breath that she probably didn't want me (or Steven) to hear, given the amount of expletives she used, and I caught a glare in my periphery as I walked out the door.

* * *

We made small talk as we made our way to the town. You know, the usual comments about the weather, complaining about how hungry we were, making inane bets based on random happenings around us; the normal things that people who had just met each other would talk about. However, the walk was _agonizingly_ slow. I could feel my gut threatening mutiny with how badly it needed sustenance, and it was about to make my liver walk the plank.

Arrr. Now I just needed a cutlass and a flintlock pistol to complete that analogy.

We passed a doughnut shop called _The Big Donut_ along the way, but I didn't really find it much interesting, though Steven seemed to like it when he suggested it to me.

No, instead, I eyed a store with a sign that had a little graphic of a pizza in the shape of a plump fish, fins, tail, and all. It wasn't hard for me, with my enhanced faunus sense of smell, to detect the aroma of pizza and fish inside the restaurant.

Now, I'd like to say that I considered all my options and gave the other restaurant, a place called _Beach Citywalk Fries_ , a healthy amount of thought, but I'll be honest. I just pointed at the fishy pizzeria and said, "That one." I promise, it was just the hunger talking, I swear.

Steven nodded and replied. "Fish Stew Pizza? Good choice. Nothin' betta than a little chedda for curin' an ol' case of the munchies, eh? Well let's go get us some pizza!"

 _Fish Stew Pizza_ was a small restaurant, even by small restaurant standards. It had _maybe_ enough seating for nine or so people, and the chairs were all the cheap, stackable kind, and its walls were laden with various pictures and paintings from various "exotic" locales. I'd guessed that Beach City was more akin to Beach Town just by walking along the beach, but this pizzeria really cemented that notion in my mind.

The establishment's only other occupant, besides the staff, was a pale young man sitting at one of the tables with a computer of some kind and headphones. There was a young, dark-skinned woman wearing a scarf in her hair and a white apron, with a slice of pizza drawn on it, running the register at the counter.

"Hey Steven, Amethyst," she greeted, "Who's your new friend?" I noticed she eyed Gambol Shroud with no small amount of suspicion, but chose to stay quiet.

"Oh, we don't really know quite yet! Me and the Gems just met her!"

"Hello," I greeted in return with a wave, "I'm Blake."

"Kiki. Well, a friend of Steven's is a friend of mine, just so long as you don't abuse the All You Can Eat menu." She fixed Amethyst with a steady stare. The purple woman just chuckled and rubbed the back of her head. "What can I get for you, today?"

The others ordered their usuals while I carefully eyed the menu hanging over the counter until I caught sight of one particular entrée. "I'll have the Fish Lover's Special."

I swear, I'm not doing this on purpose.

Kiki nodded, and relayed the order to the kitchen. I hung my coat on a coatrack, followed Steven and Amethyst to one of the tables, and sat down, unslinging Gambol Shroud as I did; the chairs were surprisingly comfy, despite their obviously cheap construction. To my surprise, the pizza was ready not a scant few minutes after we sat down.

As Kiki laid three large, flat pizza boxes on the table, I asked her why the pizzas came so fast. With a wink, she replied, "My dad takes pride in how quickly he can whip up a pie, but sometimes we need Gunga around to keep him from goin' a little _too_ fast, if you know what I'm talkin' about." I raised an eyebrow, but she smirked and returned to her post at the counter.

The next few seconds were a blur. In one moment, I was opening the box that had the letters FLS on it, and the next thing I knew, I had a slice in each hand, both nearly eaten to their crusts.

Steven and Amethyst were gawking at me, and the guy at the back was even glancing at me with a brow raised, but he returned to his computer shortly.

"She's faster than you, Amethyst," Steven finally said. Amethyst just gave an awestruck nod in reply. "That hungry, huh?"

I gave a small nod, finished off the slices in my hands at a slightly more sedate pace, and started work on my third. The pizza wasn't really all that exceptional, but hell, I was _starving_. After my fourth slice was halfway done, I noticed that my companions weren't eating their pies. I raised a brow at them, and Amethyst pushed over her box to me.

"You look like you need this more than me," she said. I thanked her in between bites. Hey, faunus can have manners, too. Just shows those racists what's what.

"So you mentioned those kingdoms of yours," Amethyst said after a minute of me just filling my devastatingly empty belly, "could you tell us anything about where you're from?"

I swallowed down some pizza and dabbed at my lips with a napkin. The request was obviously an attempt at information gathering, but I didn't see any harm in withholding that information from them. "How's about this; You ask a question, I ask a question. We have to answer honestly, but we can withhold information that we so desire. Deal?" They nodded. "Since you've never heard of Remnant," I continued, "I'm pretty sure I'm _very_ far from home. Remnant's what we call my world, by the way. Humanity is separated into four individual kingdoms- Atlas, Mistral, Vacuo, and Vale. They're more like democracies with elected officials, and the 'Kingdom' nomenclature is just a holdover from an older time. My turn. How did you find me?"

"Steven found you floating in this place we call the Warp. We Crystal Gems use it to get from place to place quickly nearly anywhere on earth." I nodded. Okay, so this place is called Earth, then. Good to know.

"Oh! Oh! My turn! How did you do that cool shadow thing earlier?"

Should I tell Steven about that? Eh, screw it. Why not?

"That's my Semblance. Think of it as a personalized superpower."

"That's so cool!" he very nearly shouted. "Is that like magic?"

"One question at a time, Steven," I replied. "Besides, magic doesn't exist. Closest thing we have is Dust."

Amethyst scoffed. "Magic does _too_ exist." I noticed her hand and a large purple gemstone poking out from under her tank top glow bright white for a moment. I shielded my eyes, and when I looked back, her hand was replaced with the head of a striped purple cat. "Isn't that right, Mr. Fluffles?" she cooed to it. It yawned adorably in response.

 _What_?

I choked on my next bite of fish-topped pizza, coughing furiously. Amethyst's cat hand turned back into her regular purple hand, and she doubled over into a laughing fit. Steven rushed to my side and helped me clear my airway.

When I could speak again, I could only say, "What the hell was _that_?!"

Amethyst stopped laughing, shrugged, and simply replied, "Magic."

I let out one more cough. "Fair enough. So, what's the current state of Dust prices?"

And so the conversation went. They talked about Beach City and I talked about Remnant. We bounced questions back and forth as Steven and I (but mostly me) ate, and through those questions, I learned that this place, earth, lived without the benefit of Dust and that no one possessed an active Aura. Two major factors of Remnant's society just... gone.

Earth also had a population of around _six billion people_.

 _WHAT?_ Vale was about as large as the other Kingdoms, but it struggled to maintain a comparatively mere eight million citizens or so. To think that there were nearly a _thousand_ _times_ more people here was just... _wow_.

I also learned that Pearl, Amethyst, and Garnet weren't humans at all. Instead, they were immortal, magic-slinging amazon warriors whose true form was a small gemstone at the core of their being.

I just wasn't going to get a break today, was I?

Steven and Amethyst also learned some general things about Remnant. Namely, they learned about facets of my world's culture, like the CCT and what life was like in the Kingdoms. I carefully danced around the Faunus Civil Rights movement, since it seemed that for all of the earth's weirdness, faunus didn't seem to have partaken in it. As weird as it sounded, I don't think they even _had_ them, given how the Gems never talked about it or subtly mentioned it.

Steven and I were running out of pizza, and my hunger was finally starting to reluctantly wander back into whatever cave it had reared its head from. It looked like it was their turn to ask, and it looked like it was going to be the last question for a while.

Amethyst got right to the meat of the conversation. "Back in the house, you were able to keep me and Pearl on our toes. We're defenders of the earth, and you're pretty competent yourself. Why do you need to know how to go toe-to-toe with some serious foes?" Wait, was that assonance intentional?

Amethyst held up a hand, and Steven slapped it energetically. So it was, then.

I thought about my reply for a minute. "I told you about how Remnant only has about 30 million people on the whole face of the planet, right?" They nodded; I continued, "Well, that's the number, but not for lack of trying. At every twist and turn, humanity is threatened by the Creatures of Grimm: soulless monsters of pure darkness whose only purpose is to deal death and destroy." While I talked, I pulled my scroll from a hidden pocket, and showed them an artist's rendition of an Ursa Major to give them a better idea.

Steven turned pale, and Amethyst just whistled.

"Yeah, these guys, coupled with the usual injustices of society, don't make survival all that easy on Remnant. After the last Great War, about 80 years ago, special schools were established to teach Remnant's youth how to fight the Grimm. There's one major school in each Kingdom, and typically, you'd have to attend a combat school beforehand. These schools are called Huntsman Academies, and I am a Huntress-in-training of Beacon Academy in the Kingdom of Vale."

Steven's eyes practically _sparkled_ , his grin stretched from ear to ear, and he exclaimed, "So you're like a fairy tale hero!" Well, _that_ sounded awfully familiar. I didn't really feel like crushing dreams right now though, so instead of offering a rebuke about how the world's not like a fairy tale, I nodded.

* * *

Steven ended up saving half of his pizza by the time we left Fish Stew Pizza. I'd just finished draping my coat over my slim frame when Amethyst told us she was going back to the Beach House and left us alone for the day. Evidently, she decided I was trustworthy enough that I could be left alone with Steven, or that he could take me in a fight.

To be honest, I didn't know which of those possibilities made me more uncomfortable. These people were a little _too_ trusting, which did little than make me wonder _why_.

We still had at least a few hours until sundown, so Steven suggested that I be given the grand tour of Beach City. I saw no reason to object, and soon enough, we'd wasted a couple of hours at the Funland Arcade playing headache-inducing video games, powered through a few carnival games at the Funland Amusement Park, and picked up a brochure at the Beach City Visitor Center for the rest of the stuff that I would miss.

"Wow, Blake!" exclaimed Steven as we walked down Waterman Street following me utterly crushing the ring toss game at the amusement park, "You _trounced_ that thing back there! I thought that game was rigged!"

I smirked, holding the giant stuffed black-and-white cat that I'd earned at the booth under one arm. "Evidently, it was supposed to be. I mean, did you see Smiley's face when I won? Priceless."

"So how did you win, then? I didn't notice you cheating or anything!"

"When your fighting style partly revolves around throwing your weapon as accurately as possible, you get a feel for anything of the sort. Tossing is trivial to me."

Steven once again had stars in his eyes. "Wow! Think you could show me how you fight one day?"

I flashed him a warm grin. "Sure."

"Anyway, this is the last stop before we gotta head back. My dad works there, and I really want you to meet him!" He was right. The sun was just inching its way down to the horizon, and soon it would be dark.

We'd stopped at a car wash. It was a fairly modern building, if a little small, and there was a multicolored van covered in stencils parked in front of it. There was little rust or tarnish or any sort of rot on the walls or doors of the establishment, and, with my modest faunus night vision, I could see that the interior was clean and well cared-for, almost like it was lived in. The wash's fluorescent lights were off for the evening, but the neon lights above the entrance cheerfully displayed an elephant washing itself, with the name of the car wash superimposed on top of the animal.

Wait, was this for real?

Once again, I felt myself doing something that I just couldn't help today. I burst out into rolling belly laughter.

"What's so funny?" Steven asked. That only made me double over in a fit of chuckles, compounded onto my previous gut-busting.

" _I-It's a Wash_!" I managed to squeeze out. Steven raised an inquisitive brow at me. My sides. Ow.

Steven gave up, shook his head, walked over to the van, and gave it a few raps on the side. Laughing all the way (ho ho ho), I followed him to the automobile. There was a crashing sound that rang out from inside the van, accompanied by a grunt and a wet slap on metal. Eventually, the van's back doors were thrown open, and out popped an aging man. He was a near-sickly shade of pale where he harbored a clear farmer's tan, and a ruddy pink wherever else. His face, though drowsy from being recently awoken, was kind and relaxed. He had a beard and he displayed a mane of hair topped with a _very_ prominent bald spot. He wore a white tank top and grey cut down jean shorts.

The man yawned, saw Steven, and smile from ear to ear. "Steven!" he said, pure joy coloring his voice.

"Dad!" Father and son embraced in a warm hug. It was just barely heartwarming enough to get me to snap out of my giggling reverie.

"Dad, this is my new friend, Blake!" The older man gave me a polite wave. I smiled back. "Blake," Steven continued, "this is my dad, Greg!" Greg extended a hand, which I firmly shook.

"Nice to meet'cha, Blake! A friend of Shtoo-ball's a friend of mine!" Greg grimaced and rubbed his hand. "Quite the grip you've got there, kiddo."

"It's a gift," I replied, "Yang's got a better one, though."

"Well I hope I never have to meet her, then!" he chuckled good-naturedly, while I inwardly grimaced. Yang. Ruby. Weiss. Would I ever see them again, or would I be stuck here, on earth, unable to do anything about the White Fang and the Grimm on Remnant?

I shook my head to clear it. Enough moping about. Cross that damn bridge when you get there, Blake.

We talked for a bit. Mostly it was easy- small talk and "how did your day go?"s that were simple to talk about. I could tell that Greg was a really easygoing guy, and he really didn't seem bothered by the fact that Steven's mom wasn't around. I asked him about that, but he avoided the question. I didn't pry. That probably-depressing conversation would come and rear its head in time, if August Murphy's Law was correct.

* * *

Eventually, the sky grew darker in degrees, and we said goodnight to Greg. We made our way back to the Beach House, and I got a good view of the old Gem Temple. Built straight into the cliff face, there loomed a _huge_ statue of a multi-armed, multi-faced woman with long, curly locks and a flowing dress top. The stone it was hewn from was cracked and overgrown with vines in parts, and some of the arms were broken off at places, but it was more than impressive nonetheless. I let out an appreciative whistle.

Pearl, Amethyst, and Garnet were waiting for us in the house, and Pearl nearly threw herself at the boy, hastily checking for cuts, bruises, or the like. After all was said and done, the Gems went into the somewhat literal bowels of the Temple and left us to sleep off our exhaustion from the events of the day. I mean sure, I fight monsters and terrorists and criminals for extra credit, but fun can wear down on you harder than a lot of things, if you let it.

Steven ascended the stairs right next to the door and I heard him falling heavily onto a fluffy mattress. He started snoring not a minute later.

I crashed on the couch, curling up underneath the heavy woolen quilt. For a minute, I stayed up, thinking.

I needed to get back home, back to Remnant. I had friends back there who still needed me, and people I needed back. Yet, there wasn't much I could do about it. From the discussions I had with the Gems, they didn't even know how to get me back, and I had even blurrier of a picture of how to go home than them. Sighing, I resigned myself to staying here, on earth, for the time being. I might as well make the best of the situation, and enjoy myself until I found a way back.

Sure, the Gems sounded like they had a problem with monsters and defending the people of earth, but judging by their reactions to the Grimm, they didn't have it nearly as bad as we did. Maybe I could kick back and have some fun while I could, until it was time to become a stalwart defender of humankind and faunus on Remnant once more.

Yeah, sure.

* * *

 **AN: So here's another thing to hold you guys over until I figure out what to do with the rest of my fics. Sorry if the title sucks, but I wanted a SU/cat-based pun, and my brain just didn't want to give one to me.**

 **I hope you guys like it, and if you're confused, this takes place during Warp Tour, and the next chapter is going to be about the second half of the episode. After that's Alone Together. I'm sorry I couldn't fit Lion in, but when we get to Alone Together, he's sure as hell gonna be in there.**

 **So woooo. I managed to finally cobble this together, and I'm going to go take a nice long week of sleep after this. I'll finish my works eventually, but school's gonna start up in a little more than a week, so my ass is screwed.**

 **Also, if you think Blake is OOC, well she probably is. I just have this headcanon that Blake is _super_ snarky and sarcastic on the inside, but it's just that she keeps all that bottled sass to herself for the most part. I like being able to show the inner thoughts of a character without it being awkward, and Blake was a great way to show it. Plus, it's like my first time writing a snarky character, so there's some bonus points for practice. :)**

 **Dammit. Enjoy!**

 **-AnonymousInsomnia**


	2. Chapter 2: Hit the Town

**October 1, 2016:**

 **Finally got a new chapter out. Damn, staying in a deep, dank cave in the middle of a box canyon in the middle of nowhere really doesn't do all that much to get you past writer's block.**

 **So yeah, I don't own RWBY, that's Rooster Teeth's stuff, and I don't own SU, that's Rebecca Sugar and Cartoon Network's stuff. Don't touch it. You might break a character or two. Tends to happen in those shows.**

 **This fanfiction is completely not-for-profit (I think) so enjoy and please don't sue.**

* * *

That night, I stood in a neverending field of roses.

As far as my eyes could see, crimson, pink, white, and gold battled in an unmoving war over color dominance on a plane of green stems and leaves. Overhead there was a clear, blue, nearly cloudless, picture-perfect sky. I looked around, seeing nothing but the same scene in every direction.

Then, suddenly, I realized that I wasn't alone in the sprawling expanse of flowers. Well, realized would be the wrong word for it. It was like there was no one there one second, and in the next instant the field was filled with people.

There were two groups in the field with me. To my left were people, young men and women, all wearing crisp, clean red, white, and black uniforms. Beacon uniforms. At the front of the crowd stood three girls. The first, youngest, and shortest, with shoulder-length dark hair that turned red at the tips, gave me a wide grin and an enthusiastic wave. The second, a girl with long, white hair bound into a side ponytail, gave me a friendly nod as her arms were crossed. The third, and the tallest of the bunch, with a veritable mane of flowing blond hair gave me a cheeky grin and a wink and a playful thumbs-up.

Ruby Rose.

Weiss Schnee.

Yang Xiao Long.

My friends. My teammates. My partners. My family at Beacon Academy.

I looked to my right. Instead of crisp and clean uniforms, they all wore dirty, worn uniforms and gray-white masks reminiscent of the Creatures of Grimm. Instead of a mix of humans and faunus like the Beacon group, they were almost all faunus. At the crowd's head stood an intimidating man with flame-red hair, a long black trenchcoat, and a chokuto with a rifle sheath in his gloved offhand.

I knew him. Adam Taurus. A monster.

He grinned a feral, viscious grin filled with malice and pointed his weapon, Wilt and Blush, directly at me. He fired, causing Wilt, the chokuto, to fly out of Blush, the rifle sheath. As if in slow motion, my eyes caught his wrist flicking and the sword starting to tumble like a wheel through the air. On instinct, I dodged, and it flew past me. I tracked its motion as it went, and saw as it flew into the crowd of Beacon students.

I gasped in horror as Ruby and Weiss and Yang scrambled to dive out of the way, only for a luckless student to be gored on the scarlet blade. None of them were paying attention to another threat that made itself known.

Grimm.

From my right, a horde of the things rushed past, blind and unthinking in their savagery and rage, moving around me as though I was a stone for the waves of Grimm to break against. They surged forward, so many of them that I couldn't see any of my friends, classmates, and peers.

But I wouldn't need to.

The only thing I would need to perceive would be the horrible, mangled screams of the bright young warriors of Beacon Academy being torn asunder by the very monsters they'd been tasked to hunt and kill, mingled with the snarls of the monsters themselves, along with the deranged cackling of one White Fang bull faunus.

* * *

 _CRACK! BOOM!_

A sound akin to a cannonball slamming through the wooden hull of a pirate ship reverberated throughout the tiny beach house, disturbing my sleep. I hastily shook the nightmare out of my thoughts with a shudder and looked over from my place on the couch to investigate the noise. I was surprised by what I saw.

A little greenish-teal orb was buried within the wooden floorboards of the beach house, and its entry hole was a jagged, rough thing in the middle of the ceiling. I raised a brow at it as four cylinders hovered out of the main body and separated into two neat halves. The cylinders pulled the little orb out of the floor and it appeared to be resting on them like feet, despite the fact that its body wasn't connected to the "feet". It wobbled and waddled on them as it made its way to the Warp Pad in the mouth of the temple.

I leapt up as soundlessly as I could to the second floor before attempting to jostle Steven awake.

"Huh... Wha?" he groaned. He blinked his eyes a few times. "Blake? What's going on?"

"Down in the living room, there's an orb-looking thing just sort of walking around."

"What? Show me!"

The little orb- kinda looked like some sort of robot of sorts- was still waddling over to the Warp Pad, yet it had a little hairline crack on its surface, oozing some sort of luminescent green fluid with little blue triangles floating within the liquid. It wobbled with what looked a bit like a limp, and it swayed like a drunkard, heavily impeding its progress.

"What is that?" Steven asked from beside me.

"Looks like some sort of robot," I replied. It was almost to the Warp Pad at that point. I jumped up, using my Semblance to create a clone in midair, then flipped and kicked my shadow clone to the ground, just hard enough to let it stay stable and corporeal for a little bit longer. It landed with a meaty thud, right in the way of the robot, right as it was about to step onto the aquamarine, multifaceted circle.

Steven dashed in right after that and basically tackled the robot, catching it and holding it immobile in his arms. I collected Gambol Shroud and joined him.

"What should we do with this?" he asked. I thought for a moment.

"It looked like it was trying to go somewhere through the Warp," I reasoned, "so maybe if we follow it through, it'll lead us to its creators, or something."

"Good idea! Let's do that!" Good idea, indeed. There's no way that could possibly go wrong.

I shook my head, then stepped onto the Warp Pad, allowing my clone to disappear as I passed it. Steven watched it for a second before falling in line with me and gently setting down the little spherical robot. Almost immediately when it came in contact with the surface, a pillar of opaque, brilliant blue light enveloped us and a feeling of weightlessness overtook me. I gasped in surprise before I got a hold of myself.

"Woo!" Steven yelled excitedly beside me. "Pretty cool, right?"

"It's... really something," I answered as nonchalantly as I could.

"Just make sure not to poke your head out of the stream! It's _really cold_ out there!"

"Noted."

We floated for a moment more, before weightlessness abruptly gave way to uncaring gravity and I promptly fell on my ass.

"Oof," I groaned. I looked around. Our surroundings had completely changed. Wood and damp cave stone metamorphosed into jagged, ruined, curved stone pillars and the wooden flooring turned into almost mirrorlike flat blue stone. I could see the night sky, with billions of twinkling stars lighting up a black void, and I could see the reflective surface of an ocean, with nary a wave in sight to break upon whatever we were standing on. Arranged in a circle around a much larger, heavily damaged, Warp Pad were a dozen and some change more, around the same size as the one we arrived on. There were also dozens upon dozens more of those little robots running around and a few were still warping in from some of the Warp Pads. They clustered around the central Warp Pad, liberally spraying more of that green ooze that leaked from the first one all over the pad.

The robot in Steven's arms squirmed and fell to the ground, leaving one of its legs in his hand. It limped to the Warp Pad, which was now completely covered in the green substance. The robots fell away, leaving the stuff behind, which appeared to harden for an instant, before shattering away and vanishing, leaving behind a pristine, undamaged Warp Pad. Steven let out a gasp, and I raised a brow at him quizzically.

"It's the Homeworld Warp..." he mumbled. Homeworld... What did he mean by Homeworld?

Suddenly, the Homeworld Warp lit up a brilliant white, and when it fell away, a figure with bright green skin, lighter green, triangularly shaped hair, and bulky artificial limbs was left standing on the pad. With another gasp, Steven pulled me behind one of the pillars- damn, he was strong for his size- and tried to make himself scarce.

Holy crap, who the hell was that?

The figure looked around before giving the pad it stood on a couple of stomps, as if testing its sturdiness.

"Hmm," the figure said in a grating, nasally, detached voice- that was distinctly feminine. Four of her fingers- which were little green worm-looking things that freaking _floated_ in the air as if they were connected to a hand- floated into the outline of a rectangle and an octogonal holographic screen appeared between the fingers. The display showed bits of information in green and she used her remaining finger to navigate its interface. "Log date: 3 1 2," She continued. "This is Peridot, performing Earth hub maintenance check." As she said this, one of the robots crawled onto her shoulder, perching there like a pirate's parrot very much would.

"Peridot." Steven muttered, almost reverently. "Her name is Peridot..."

"Warp repair a success," Peridot continued, "All seventy-nine flask robonoids deployed and accounted for. Preparing to locate and manually reactivate Kindergar-" She gasped as the robot from the beach house crawled up to her leg, attracting her attention. Steven stayed as silent as he could, but I could easily hear his small "aww" as he saw the little robot and its master.

However, Peridot was having none of it, and placed a metallic foot onto the little sphere, slowly squeezing it until it popped, with a sound akin to a water balloon exploding.

"Eep!" Steven yelped, but it was luckily pretty quiet.

"Now to access the domestic warp," She said to herself, walking down the stairs of the large Warp Pad. "Huh?" She suddenly exclaimed, grabbing at something that was stuck to the base of the pad. "Huh."

She gave one last cursory look around, and we hid behind the pillar again. I heard her say, "This site may have been compromised." I heard her footsteps retreat back onto the Warp Pad and heard her place some sort of green object onto the pad, which started beeping. Out of my periphery, I witnessed the pad glow once more, and when the glow subsided, I saw a little green stone beeping for an instant before it detonated and the robots deactivated and fell to the ground, dead as doornails, like some sort of EMP effect.

* * *

Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl were all waiting for us when we finally got back.

Oh, they were also glaring daggers at me from the moment the two of us warped in. Shit. This was gonna take some serious explaining, on the double.

The second we warped back into the house, Pearl and Amethyst practically tackled Steven and smothered him with their hugs. Garnet managed to stay back, but only _just_ barely keeping herself from joining Steven's other guardians.

"Where have you been?!" shrieked Pearl. "We came back and you were gone! We've been worried sick about you!"

"Yeah, dude!" Amethyst added. "Don't scare us again like that, bro!"

"And _you_ ," Pearl spat at me, "Why were _you_ with our Steven? Why did you drag him out of the house? What did you _do_?"

I held up my hands defensively. "Whoa, calm down, Pearl. We noticed something strange and decided to investigate."

"Yeah, Pearl!" Steven readily came to my defense. "There was this orb-lookin' robot that crashed through the roof and we followed it..." He faltered for a moment. "To the Galaxy Warp... We found a new Gem, guys."

Pearl, Amethyst, and even Garnet gasped at that. "Another Gem. All the way over here. On earth," Garnet said.

"She said her name was Peridot," I answered, "she said she was here to check on something called the 'Kindergarten'."

Pearl and Amethyst looked like they were about to say something, but Garnet placed her hands on their shoulders and simply stated, "We're going to go investigate. You two will get some sleep."

"Sounds like a plan!" Steven replied. "Today's just about chewed me up and spit me out." He yawned, and started to climb the stairs up to his bed. The Crystal Gems stepped onto the Warp Pad and teleported away.

"Yeah, I'll go do that, too." I unceremoniously dumped Gambol Shroud onto the table and leapt into the comfy, feathery folds of the makeshift couch bed.

I only dreamt of a void that night. The most restful sleep I'd had in a while.

* * *

I woke up to the sound of something scratching at the screen door. I rose from my hobbled-together bed, rubbed the sleep out of my somewhat crusty eyes (ugh, that's so damn gross), and trudged to the door. It creaked open at my insistence.

"Ugghh, what do you... want...?"

Standing in front of the door was a giant, rose-colored lion with a cotton candy pink mane of luscious, primal hair.

Oh shit.

I let out a yelp, activated my Semblance on instinct, and backflipped away from the off-color alpha predator, landing in a crouch and keeping a wary eye on it. However, it seemed decidedly nonplussed by my startled reaction, and seemed content with sniffing my shadow clone and staring at me before barging through the doorway, which it seemed entirely way too big for. It then completely ignored me in favor of leaping all the way to Steven's bed.

"Hmmm, is he looking for Steven?" I muttered as quietly as I could. I looked around.

There! on the fridge! A pair of notes stood on the pale white door, held there by magnets. I skulked over to them, reading one after the other.

" 'Steven, we've gone to figure out some things about what happened last night. Stay safe, keep an eye on Blake, and don't get into trouble. Pearl.' "

" 'Good morning, Blake! Sorry, but I have to go and take care of some stuff with my dad at the car wash, so you'll be on your own. I trust that you'll take care of yourself and not get into too much trouble, and have a good time! I left you a twenty on the coffee table, in case you wanted something to eat. I read the note to the left of this one, so be sure to get rid of this one when you're done! :) . Steven.' "

Hmm... Okay then.

"Hey," I called to the lion (dear God I hope I won't get mauled), "If you're looking for Steven, he's not here right now. Check the car wash." Come on, was I seriously talking to a wild animal?

At least he seemed to understand. He kinda made a little grunting sound, and headed out the door. I breathed a deep sigh of relief when he left, and slid down to the floor. I took a moment to get my wits about me and realized that I hadn't eaten breakfast yet. I looked at the clock. 3:45 PM. Damn. I missed lunch, too. I pushed off of the floor and collected my things and the twenty and headed out the door.

* * *

The doors to the Big Donut swung open stiffly, as if they hadn't been oiled in a while, but not quite enough to rust. My boots squeaked on the linoleum tiled floor and the air smelled like it should- like there were a thousand calories packed within every cubic inch of it. A platoon of various coolers, coffee makers, microwaves, and dispensers lined the stucco walls of the establishment, and a small counter was the only thing separating the staff half of the store from the patron half. Behind the counter stood two employees: one was a lanky punkish-looking teenage guy, about my age, with burnt-orange hair cut into a haphazard mohawk and obnoxiously large gauges in his earlobes, and the other was a more... compact blonde girl with a no-nonsense expression on her face. The guy was talking to her about something that didn't look too important, and she appeared to be half listening to him and half somewhere else.

The doors made a little chiming, ringing sound as I pushed them open, and it got their attention. The guy just stared at me, his jaw nearly hitting the ground. The girl was kind of doing the same before she shook herself out of it.

"Welcome to the Big Donut!" she said, "You look like you're new around here. I'm Sadie. How may I help you today?"

She sure sounded pretty freakin' peppy. I glanced at the menu before replying, "Gimme two of anything that's sweet and hot, plus a coffee. Black, please."

Sadie nodded, then went off to collect the stuff I'd ordered. Meanwhile, the guy finally decided that it was time to speak.

"Uhh, hi... M-my name's Lars."

"Blake," I replied.

"Do you... come around here often?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Is that supposed to be some kind of pickup line?"

"Nononono, that's not what I meant! I mean, are you staying in town?"

"Yeah, with a kid named Steven Universe."

He kind of grimaced at that. "Oh, _him_. Anyway, do you think... I dunno, maybe we could... hang out? Sometime?"

Sadie finally came back with my breakfast. I thanked her. "Maybe. I'll think about it," I told Lars. I thought about it for a second, then shot him a quick wink. Maybe Yang'd approve. I suppressed the urge to giggle like mad when his face almost turned a beet red, and left the store.

* * *

I sat on the edge of the boardwalk pier with my legs hanging off the side over the water. I idly swung them back and forth while I munched and snacked on doughnuts and sipped my coffee. It was oddly relaxing, just sitting there, enjoying the sights, sounds, and smells of a sleepy town, eating a doughnut and drinking a cup of joe.

I sighed in near contentment. Really the only thing that would make this morning better would be if I could take my bow off. Thing kind of chafes after a while. Really don't want to expose myself like that though. I just tried to ignore the suffocating feeling over my feline ears and enjoy the day.

Which is why I tried not to murder something when a small group of people about my age decided to sit down and talk to me.

A darker-skinned girl sat herself down next to me, saying, "Hey, so you're new around here, huh? My sis told me you'd stopped by the ol' family business yesterday. Just wanted to welcome you to Beach City! I'm Jenny!"

No, Blake. No homicide today. Bad Blake; stop it.

"Blake," I replied.

"Nice to meet ya, Blake," came a smooth voice with little inflection from my left. Its owner, a boy with casually windblown, tossed-around hair and opaque sunglasses and a red windbreaker over a simple tee shirt, extended a hand to me. "I'm Buck."

Well, what was I gonna do? Leave someone's handshake hanging like an asshole? I shook his hand.

"Same here, Buck," I politely said.

Over on the right, another boy, this one pale with blue eyes and platinum blond hair styled into a point and wearing a hoodie, sat down. "They call me Sour Cream."

"So, you're Steven's friend, right?" asked Jenny.

I nodded. "I'm staying with him right now."

"How long are you staying in town?"

"For the foreseeable future."

"Oooh! You wanna hang out?" piped up Jenny. "We don't have much to do today, and maybe you wanna hit the town?"

I thought about it for a second. Then I realized that it was probably a bad idea to get on the Gems' bad side. Then I realized that Pearl still wouldn't like me either way. Eh, what was a few more burst blood vessels for someone in the verge of a stroke 24/7?

* * *

A couple hours later, Buck, Sour Cream, Jenny, and I were crammed like sardines into some sort of pizza delivery car. The roof was off, and the wind brushed against and caressed our faces as it flew past while we cruised along the road. Jenny was driving, and she put on some sort of punky heavy rock song on the car's stereo.

So far, we'd grabbed some more snacks and we went to a little party that someone had decided to throw somewhere out of town, for no good reason. We had decided to bail at around 5 PM, and were now headed back into town.

"O. M. G., Blake!" exclaimed Jenny. "That party was _wack_! How did you know that the punch was spiked?"

I'd heard one of the partygoers mention that he'd added a little 'somethin' somethin' ' to the punch easily with my faunus ears. "I figured. Party that size means that _someone_ was bound to spike the punch."

"Good instincts, Blake," Buck complimented.

"Hey, so where are you from, if you don't mind me asking?" inquired Jenny.

"Somewhere... _very_... far from here."

"Oookay, cryptic answers aside," Jenny continued, "You're a student, right? What school do you go to?"

I frowned at that. "Why do you ask that?"

"Just a little bit curious, ya know? I think we'll be hanging out a lot more often from now on, so I wanna know more about you, you know?"

I chewed my lip. Ah, what the hell. "Beacon Academy."

"Neat," Buck noted. "We go to Beach City High. What do you study?"

I pursed my lips. How would I phrase Huntsmanship to a society without Grimm? "... Nothing really major, but I dabble in... uh, martial arts and hunting," I finally decided on saying.

"That's cool," Sour Cream remarked.

"Yeah... It's pretty cool," I muttered.

The car finally came to a stop, right at the Big Donut café, where the paved road met the sandy beach. This was where I got off.

"Hey, so I'm DJ-ing a rave tomorrow," Sour Cream said, as I was stepping out of the car. "Do you wanna come, or something?"

Hmmm... "...Sure, why not? Sounds fun." I shot him a grin and a wink, then stepped onto the beach.

"See you at ten!" Jenny called as she drove the pizza car away.

They seemed like nice guys. I think I might actually spend more time with them.

* * *

Steven was back by the time I'd entered the beach house. The lion was with him, too. He was sitting on the couch, which was bereft of my appropriated blankets and pillows, and the lion sat on the hardwood floor at his feet. The boy was smothering himself within the massive animal's equally massive mane, and the big cat appeared to be merely tolerating Steven's attention.

He heard the door creak open, and his face shot out of the fluffy rosy mane. "Hey Blake! Did you have a nice day?"

"Steven," I answered. "Yeah. I hung out with some guys from around town. Guy named Buck, a guy named Sour Cream- which is a pretty weird name- and a girl named Jenny."

"Oh yeah!" he blurted out. "Those are friends of mine! Hey, did you get to meet my lion, Lion, yet?"

"I did, in fact. This morning. He left before we could really hold a conversation."

"Well, come on over here! Go on, don't be shy, he doesn't bite."

The lion, Lion, sniffed at me like a bloodhound when I came near. He glanced above my head, at my bow, then gave my hand a friendly lick.

"Aww, he likes you!" Steven remarked.

"I guess I'm more of a cat person," I quipped. Dammit Yang. "Sour Cream said that he was going to perform at a rave tomorrow at ten, by the way."

"Oh! That's cool. Maybe we could check on that later then."

Suddenly, the Warp Pad lit up in a pillar of brilliant light; when it cleared, there stood Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl. They looked haggard and tired, but their body language was notably on edge and nervous. What had gotten them all worked up?

"Blake," finally said Garnet. "Come with us. We need to talk."

Uh oh.

* * *

 **AN: In between procrastinating from procrastinating from week-long school projects, I finally managed to throw this up out of my mind-mouth. I'm not really proud of it, since it more or less is meant to set up the next chapter, but I hope you enjoy.**

 **I feel like I might need to explain the title though. I was kind of going for a punny title, since the episode Steven's Lion was about Lion, a cat, and since Blake's a cat, and a huntress, well... yeah. Not the best title in my opinion. If you want to suggest a new title, by all means put it in your review or a PM.**

 **Remember that the review section is for comments and criticism, folks! if you want me to answer a question (that doesn't give away like a dozen plot points, like seriously) log in and post a review, or PM me.**

 **Thanks! See you around!**

 **-AnonymousInsomnia**


	3. Chapter 3: Clubbin'

**October 21, 2016,**

 **A bit on the short side today, but I really wanted to get this out before the RWBY Volume 4 premiere.**

 **In other news, RWBY VOLUME 4 PREMIERE! WOOOOO GET HYPE!**

 **Do I look like Monty Oum? No? Well that's 'cause I'm not dead (RIP buddy). Do I look like Rebecca Sugar? No? That's 'cause I'm not a girl.**

 **I don't intend to make money with this fanfiction. It's all not-for-profit, unlike Trump U.**

* * *

I woke up at pretty damn near the crack of dawn.

I got off the couch, stretched, and yawned my sleepiness away. I cast a glance at the upper level of the house, where Steven slept. I couldn't help but smile at the thought of the kid; his enthusiasm and positivity was just straight-up contagious.

I went to the kitchen and started making breakfast. It took a little bit of searching, but I eventually discovered some tea bags, a carton of eggs, some bacon strips, and a loaf of bread. Some more searching yielded a kettle, a frying pan, some oil, a toaster, and butter. My arms went on autopilot, brewing the tea and cooking food, as my mind wandered back to the conversation the day before.

* * *

 _"So which one of you's the bad cop?" I finally asked._

 _"What?" asked Pearl._

 _"It's Pearl," succinctly answered Garnet._

 _"...Yeah, I can see that." Pearl just shot me a look of mature disgust, and simply turned her freakishly-long nose up at me, huffed, and picked up her pace._

 _Amethyst gave an enthusiastic belly laugh at that, then followed the taller Gem, probably to annoy her with crass jokes._

 _"She's not that bad once you get to know her," Garnet assured me before she moved to catch up with her._

 _Really now..._

 _The three of us marched through a rather bizarre room. As soon as I followed Pearl and Garnet and Amethyst through the Temple door, I'd been assaulted by the pungent smell of ocean water. The door had opened up into a magnificently large and magnificently... magnificent room that was mostly empty space..._

 _Except for the gigantic pillars of water that occupied that space._

 _To be honest, I'd expected to immediately sink into the water and to have to start swimming as the Gems looked on and laughed at my expense. Imagine my joy when I didn't, and the water acted like solid stone underneath my feet. I looked carefully at the columns of water and saw that instead of being pure water, they were really floating platforms that spilled water over the edges by the gallon per millisecond, from no obvious source._

 _What joy. As if my life didn't need anymore weirdness._

 _As soon as we'd entered, Pearl did something, and the platforms rearranged themselves into a staircase, with a bunch of smaller platforms leading up to a single, large dais. As we walked over them, the platforms fell away down into the void below. Even my eyes couldn't see down that far. Apparently, Pearl didn't want me running away from this interro- I mean conversation._

 _When we reached the final platform, Pearl turned to me and asked, "Where did you say you came from again?"_

 _"City of Vale, Kingdom of Vale, Remnant."_

 _"Okay, well we were visiting the Royal Diamond Archive in the North, and we were looking to find something about how to get you home." Pearl's forehead gem lit up a sky blue, and projected some sort of hologram as she spoke. It displayed some sort of oddly shaped pentagram-looking building that bore an odd resemblance to a valuable gemstone, with a multitude of facets and intricately bouncing light off its faces. "We knew that odds would be slim that the name Homeworld had chosen for your world would be the same as the one that your people would have named it, but we had to try. I assume you don't know any galactic coordinates, too."_

 _"No idea." We hadn't even made it to space. What the hell did she think we'd do, figure out exactly where we were in the universe before even making it to the shattered moon?_

 _"Any_ other _things that might make it stand out?"_

 _I mulled that question over for a bit. Oh! There was "A shattered moon. One with phases that made it appear like it was whole half of the time and broken the other."_

 _"That might actually let us narrow it down. Until then, you're stuck with us._ Fortunately _," she spat the word like it had a bitter taste, "you have here to stay until we can figure out how to get you back."_

 _"Pearl." Garnet said, managing to admonish the other Gem using just a single word. Pearl appeared to visibly shrink a little under the stern leader's sterner speech._

 _"We'll do whatever we can," reassured Amethyst. "But until we do, if you need more room t' stretch your legs, you can always crash in my room!"_

 _"No human would want to crash in your room, Amethyst," Garnet said._

 _"Why not? I keep it sanitary!"_

 _"It's not a question of hygiene,_ mostly _. It's just too messy."_

 _"That's fair."_

 _I gave Amethyst a look, then said to Pearl, "Is it really that bad?"_

 _She wrinkled her nose at Amethyst. "Yes," she answered with no small amount of disgust._

* * *

After a little more conversation and a few more questions, the Crystal Gems let me retire for the night. I'd already learned as much already, but Earth definitely was a totally different planet altogether. The concept of _how exactly_ Remnant and Earth had such similar convergent evolution and identical freaking _language_ was a whole other can of worms I had no intention of opening. The more pressing question on my mind was a way easier question to answer- or at least I hoped.

Just how far was I from home? Pearl mentioned things on a _galactic_ level, and the sparse collection of scientists on Remnant that were more interested in space than Grimm and Dust had vaguely determined that planets were _immeasurably_ far away from each other. How in the hell was I supposed to cross things over a distance of _light-years_ and get back to the fight on Remnant?

In Vale...

My team...

Shit, I was going to need more comfort food to get my mind off this logistical mess.

I noticed that during my little daydream, my hands had fixed up five helpings of bacon, eggs, and toast, with liberal buttering on the final part of the meal. I'd also boiled about a quart of water in the kettle and there was a squad of teabags and mugs at the ready, prepared to receive the scalding liquid. The carton of eggs lay empty on the counter, and the milk that I figured Steven might want stood nearly empty, with only enough left for one more cup.

I felt my ears twitch at the sound of Steven rising from his bed and mentally chided myself on that habit that I still hadn't smothered in its sleep.

"Good morning, Steven," I called up to him. "I made breakfast."

"Thank you," he called down cheerfully in between yawns. He made his way down the stairs to the upper level and into the kitchen. "Bacon, eggs, and toast. Nice. Scrambled?"

I shrugged. "For a while, I ran with a... group that was big on roughing it. We perfected the art of scrambled eggs during... campouts."

"I can see that. Good job!" Yeah, the eggs were excellently done and fluffy, if I said so myself.

No, I'm not stroking my own ego, why do you ask?

"Why'd you make five plates, though?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Don't your guardians want some breakfast?"

"Maybe Amethyst, but as a rule, Gems don't need to eat at all."

"So Amethyst just eats for pleasure?"

"Pretty much, yeah." Well that explained the pizzeria. "More for us, I guess."

We sat down at the counter and ate. Steven washed his food down with a cold glass of milk while I did freshly brewed tea. Not a bad way to start the day.

"Oh dangit!" Steven suddenly cried out. "I completely forgot!"

"Forgot what?" I asked.

"You used up the last of the eggs and milk to make breakfast, right?" I nodded. "Then we gotta get some more! I swear, Amethyst eats everything she can get her hands on..."

"Don't worry about it," I found myself saying. "I'll pick some stuff up for you. It's the least I can do."

"Thanks! Here, let me fix up a list of groceries we need and give you some cash, and I'll really appreciate if you can get some more rocky road ice cream!"

"No problem, Steven."

* * *

It was about noon when I arrived back at the house, my arms loaded with truly copious amounts of brown paper bags filled with groceries. Apparently it looked really heavy, because some of the good citizens of Beach City offered to help carry some of them for me, but I really didn't need the help.

Ah, the wonders of Aura enhanced strength. I may not be as strong as Yang, but I wasn't a slouch compared to the everyman without training or powers.

I could hear some sort of peppy pop music with a steady beat emanating from inside long before I reached the first steps leading onto the porch and, once I opened the door, found Steven... dancing with Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl?

Oh no wait, he just fell down. He's _learning_ how to dance with Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl.

"What's going on?" I asked as I deposited the groceries onto the kitchen counter.

"This is a lesson on fusion, Blake," answered Pearl. Right, as if I knew what that meant.

"Alright, what's the dancing got to do with it?"

"It helps us concentrate and synchronize with our partners whenever the situation calls for it." Way to be vague, Garnet. Besides, I'm sure that the enemy will let you do a waltz or a quick samba in the middle of a fight, that'll show them.

"Well, it's not really my cup of tea, but I could show you something, Steven."

"Really?!" the kid practically shrieked in delight.

"Sure."

* * *

A few minutes later, Steven and I were locked into a slow dance, where Steven paid attention almost completely to his shoes.

"Steven, you've got the right idea, paying attention to your footwork, but you've gotta get the feel down in your movements."

"I'm trying, Blake! It's just so hard!"

"Practice makes perfect. Just keep at it and you'll do fine."

The musical number we were dancing to ended, and we called a break. As Steven guzzled down water from a bottle, his little phone rang. He picked it up, and his expression grew more and more mortified.

"Hey Connie! What, me and the Gems were just practicing fusion- Wait, what? Oh gosh! How could I forget! Oh no, just forget it, come down over to my place, we can have lunch here. We made sandwiches and everything. Yeah. Okay, see ya later."

"Who was that?" I asked when Steven finally hung up.

"Oh, a friend of mine. Her name's Connie." I noticed Steven's cheeks color a bit when he said her name. Oh. _That_ kind of friend. As in like-like the other person, but isn't really willing to share their intimate feelings yet, kind of friend. Don't worry bud, your secret's safe with me.

"Yeah," he sighed, "I told her that we would hang out today, and that I would meet her at the Big Donut, but I completely forgot!" Steven then ran around the house, grabbing some bits and pieces and stuffing them in his pockets, probably in preparation to receive his "friend".

The Big Donut wasn't _that_ far from the Temple, and soon enough, someone came knocking at the door. Through the screen, I could see a young girl, a little older-looking than Steven, standing outside. She had a dark complexion and wore a plain sky-blue dress with a little pinkish-purplish decorative belt tied around her chest. Steven dashed to the door and let her into the house.

"Hello, Steven," amicably greeted the girl.

"Hey Connie!" Steven replied. "Hey, sorry about leaving you at the Big Donut all day. I know how hard it is to restrain yourself in front of all that _wholesome_ food."

"Nah, it's fine. Hey, who's that girl over there?" Oh. She was talking about me.

"Oh! That's Blake! She's staying with us for a while. Say hi, Blake!"

"Hello."

"Steven, about those sandwiches..." Steven's eyes widened, and a broad grin stretched across his face.

"Connie, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" After a beat, Connie mirrored Steven's expression.

"On three..." Connie began.

"One..."

"Two..."

"Picnic on the beach!" They finished simultaneously.

"We'll see you guys later!" Steven called to the rest of us.

"Goodbye, Steven. Have fun," Garnet answered.

"Be safe. We'll brainstorm more ideas for lessons while you're gone," Pearl added distractedly as she pored over some footwork maps she'd drawn up while I was giving Steven some pointers. Amethyst hummed in both agreement and farewell right beside the taller Gem.

The two left, letting the squeaking door creak closed behind them.

* * *

"Okay, how's this?" I asked.

Pearl scanned the paper, then shook her head in dismay. "No, no, no. That's not gonna work. See here, on step 3, you have the right foot too far to the right, and on step 7, you put the left foot just a _tad_ too far forward. Try again, but try to make the mapping more fluid."

I threw my hands into the air. "This is getting ridiculous! How hard could it be to teach a prepubescent teenager how to dance?!"

"It's harder than you think," Garnet deadpanned.

"I don't know what you're all goin' on about here," said Amethyst. "Just go with da flow! Dancin' comes naturally when you let yourself go to it!"

"Huh," Pearl said. "That's actually pretty sound advice, Amethyst."

"Don't mention it, P," the purple Gem said with a wink.

"Okay, then why are we bothering with these maps anyway?"

"I'm with Blake on this one. Why are we even doing this?"

Pearl sighed heavily. "Yes, while it is very important to do what feels natural, you need _some_ sort of foundation for getting the muscle memory and concepts of timing and footwork down before adding any personal touches."

Well that made sense. The same applied to fighting, really. Any _good_ fighter needs the basics to remain competent (and _alive_ for that matter), but to be a _great_ fighter, you needed to build upon those basics with your own personal styles and habits in order to create a fighting style that you could truly call your own.

Well shit, I guess it's time to take it from the top.

Just as I put my pencil down to a new sheet of paper, the door creaked open, and an unknown, yet strangely familiar voice called into the house.

"Hey guys! Guess who?"

Dammit, I yelped (again), drew Gambol Shroud, and trained it on the stranger in the doorway. The figure- I couldn't quite tell if they were male or female- gasped and raised their hands in surrender. They wore short jean shorts that exposed long, lightly-tanned legs for days, and a light sky blue frilly shirt over a familiar-looking red shirt with a bright golden star that exposed their midriff. Right where the bellybutton of a normal person would be... was Steven's gemstone. I aimed at the floor.

"What in the-?"

"Hey everyone. So this is kind of a funny story..."

* * *

"Okay, let me get this straight," I finally said, pinching the bridge of my nose to hold my headache in, "Steven and Connie decided to start dancing on the beach..."

"Yes."

"Then they were enveloped in a pink light..."

"Yes."

"And then there you were."

"Pretty much," the person sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of me said. My headache decided to try to come back in full force.

"And you just expect me to believe that."

"Whoa, chill out, Blake!" Amethyst chimed in. "It's just fusion!"

"That may be true," Pearl interjected as well, "but we've never seen anything like this!" She then started examining the "fusion" of Steven and Connie (whatever that meant), scurrying like a squirrel all around them. "A Gem fusing... with a human... being? It's impossible! Or at the very least inappropriate."

In contrast to Pearl's more professional attitude, Amethyst was enjoying every moment of this. "Wow!" she laughed. "You two look great together! How does it feel, Steven? Connie? Stevonnie?" Oh God, she named them.

"It feels amazing!" Stevonnie proclaimed, oddly proudly.

"Yes. Well," Pearl said, clearly uncomfortable with the situation at hand, "I'm glad you're enjoying yourselves, but you two should un-fuse this instant."

"You know, you guys still haven't quite explained to me what fusion is yet."

"Well, you see Blake," Pearl began, "us Gems have an ability where two or more of us can resonate in order to create a more powerful amalgam of our combined magical and physical attributes fused into a single entity."

"Huh," was all I could say. Honestly, that cleared up pretty much the entire picture for me. "I guess this means we don't have to keep teaching Steven how to dance."

"Blake Belladonna," Pearl squawked, "You can't be serious! Steven still needs to learn how to fuse reliably-!" She was cut off suddenly by a purple hand covering her mouth.

"Pearl, I'm with Blake on this. Dance tutoring is hard."

"Speaking of dancing," Stevonnie said, "Blake, weren't you and Steven going to go to Sour Cream's rave tonight?"

Huh. Yeah, there _was_ that. "Are you sure about that? I mean, can Steven still go as Stevonnie?" I had my reservations about this...

"It'll be fine. No one has to know," they replied nonchalantly with a wink.

Suddenly, Garnet grabbed Stevonnie's shoulder. I noted that the wide grin she sported from the very beginning of Stevonnie's appearance hadn't faded in the slightest.

"Stevonnie," the tall Gem said. "I need to talk to you about all of this. _You_ are not two people. And _You_ are not one person. _You_... are an _experience_! Make sure you're a _good_ experience. Now... Go!... Have!... Fun!" she finished with a smile.

* * *

The rave was just about beginning when we arrived at the location, which turned out to be in the middle of a dilapidated old warehouse with a giant hole in the wall. The place had been given a semi-makeover however, as evident by the spotlights hanging haphazardly from the ceiling, the tiled dance floor, and the big speakers pumping out bass that were probably not up to city code. Sour Cream appeared to be still setting up some of his equipment up from some sort of balcony overlooking the warehouse when we finally got there. Stevonnie made a little _whoa_ sound as they took in all the sights before them.

The dance floor wasn't nearly as full as to call it a rave, but I figured that it would gradually fill up in time. There were a few of Beach City's pubescent and post-pubescent crowd on the dance floor, and one of them, the greeter apparently, handed Stevonnie and I some neon green glowsticks. They let out an excited whoop and jumped straight into the middle to join the rest of the party. I watched them go, feeling a grin tug at the corners of my lips.

"Hey Sour Cream!" I called up to the emcee. The teen in question stopped mixing whatever song he was putting on and looked down.

He grinned at me and said, "Blake! Glad to see you made it! What do you think?"

I pretended to give a critical glance over the warehouse, scrutinizing various things that weren't really there before calling up to him, with a wink, "I give it a perfect 5 out of 7!"

He laughed at that. He had a bit of a weird laugh, all monotone, but I could tell he wasn't being sarcastic.

"I gotta go set up some sick beats, so enjoy the party, Blake!"

"Thanks!"

* * *

Buck and Jenny came to the party later. We all got together for a fun little dance or two (with Sour Cream doing his thing), but Stevonnie was the one who really stole the show. Their movements were like a ballerina crossed with a breakdancer on white Dust, and their dancing stole the crowd's attention perfectly and completely, with a look of serene enjoyment plastered on their features.

As for me, I wasn't really into dancing informally, so I let them have that spotlight, and marched off to the snacks. I piled a plate with some chips and dip and a cup of soda and sat against one of the (unbroken) concrete walls. I stared at nothing in particular for a while and munched on those sweet, sweet chips...

Until some asshole decided that I was his mark of the day.

"Hey, baby," came an obnoxious voice, filled with fake bravado and suaveness. I snapped back to reality and faced the source. It was a guy, with tanned skin, probably-trendy clothes- turquoise skinny jeans, a brownish jacket over an orange shirt, brownish boots, and a turquoise infinity scarf-, brunette hair, and a shit-eating grin that could rival Yang's on a pungeon crawl.

"Hello," I replied neutrally.

He stared at me, appearing to try to drink me up with his dark eyes, before saying, "So I noticed you staying here all by yourself. You know the party's over there."

Oh God, this guy was as far from subtle as you could freaking get. "I'm _sorry_ ," I sarcastically said, "do I know you?"

He smirked and "smoothly" replied, "The name's Kevin, babe."

"Well _Kevin_ , It was _nice_ to meet you, but I'd really be helping them out," I tried to brush him off, but _damn_ was he persistent. Stevonnie did appear to need a bit of assistance, however, as evidenced by their nervousness around their crowd.

"Hey, hey, hey, let's not get too hasty," Kevin irritatingly continued. "After all," he said with a little spinning dance move that I'm sure someone else might find appealing, "It's Kevin time."

Oh God, what an ass.

Kevin started dancing right in front of me. Granted, he had moves, but I was still put off by his annoyingly arrogant attitude. I groaned and attempted to leave. I should have known that this jackass would still try my patience.

Kevin snatched my wrist and tried to pull me toward him. "Hey, where're you goin' so soon, baby? We're just getting started."

"No, we're not."

"C'mon, I'm just looking for a dance! Don't give me that," he attempted to grab my shoulder, but I ducked under his grip. I apparently surprised him, as his hand closed on reflex, and his eyes widened. I let myself feel a bit smug at that, but that smugness soon turned to horror, as his hand managed to enclose something else.

The little black bow on top of my head.

With a yelp, he pulled his hand away, and on instinct, I did the same with my body. The bow's knot pulled itself apart under the strain, and soon enough Kevin held the whole ribbon the bow was made of in one hand.

I just stood there for a second, my feline faunus features left on display for the world to see. My heart leapt into my throat, and I looked around to see looks of shock and uncomprehension. A few faces even bore apprehension.

"What the heck...?" Kevin murmured.

I didn't think. I just let my instincts take over. I raised my right boot and planted it into Kevin's stupid chest. He was knocked back several feet, and I turned around, and I left the warehouse as fast as I could.

The last familiar voice I heard that night was Steven's crying out my name after me as I ran.

* * *

 **AN: Well that was a thing.**

 **Apologies on not getting this out in any sort of reasonable time frame. As much as I love history, my US History Honors teacher keeps assigning project after project, and writing, along with learning C# programming, is not exactly easy to juggle in my busy schedule.**

 **But I managed, and this depressing piece of shit came out. Enjoy.**

 **I wonder if you saw any of that coming. Sorry if this feels too edgy, but what's a story without conflict or twists?**

 **I can tell you what: shitty coffeeshop slow burn shipping AU, that's what.**

 **Next time on Steven's Huntress: why you don't let the cat out of the bag.**

 **Adios, amigos.**

 **-AnonymousInsomnia**


	4. Chapter 4: Intermission

**11/22/16**

 **I've been shitposting too much. ALSO RWBY VOLUME 4 ROCKS MY SOCKS.**

 **RWBY is the intellectual property of Monty Oum and Roosterteeth and their affiliates. Steven Universe belongs to Rebecca Sugar and Cartoon Network.**

 **I do not intend to make money off of this fanfiction.**

* * *

Pearl liked doing menial tasks and domestic labour.

That's not to say that she was _forced_ to do it, for the finicky Gem often found it very relaxing to let her mind wander off while her hands performed the small tasks of things like folding laundry, sweeping the house with a broom, or washing the dishes.

That last one was what she was doing right now. Pearl's hands glided over the porcelain, glass, metal, and plastic bowls, plates, cups, and silverware almost like a mother would carress her child, which was almost second nature to the Gem's slender fingers. However, today Pearl found herself going over the dishware at least a couple more times than usual, having left unsanitary grease and small bits of dried food still clinging to some of the plates.

Pearl pursed her lips in annoyance, perfectly aware of _why_ she was so lax in her chores today. She was worried. Rather unwillingly, she had let Garnet and Amethyst talk her into letting Blake go to that "rave" with Stevonnie, which didn't sit right with her. Pearl didn't trust Blake as far as she could throw her- which admittedly might be a pretty fair distance- for, what was in her mind, a very valid set of reasons.

Blake really hadn't made the best impression when she and the Crystal Gems had first met (a pretty big understatement, if Pearl said so herself). "Attacked" Steven with a blanket and then threatened the rest with a small, yet menacing, human firearm, which was still as much a threat to Gems as a destabilizer's electrical energy.

Then, to her horror, the others just _sided with her_ , as if she had done no wrong. _Done no wrong_! As if threatening Steven wsn't just _asking_ for a world of pain!

Pearl sighed, letting out some of the pent-up frustration she'd been holding together. She noticed that her hands had stopped cleaning off a plate and restarted those motions.

Sure, she hadn't done anything untoward towards the Gems' precious charge, but she still had some reservations toward the black-clad teenage girl. Then again, she wasn't the biggest authority on possible events. After all, the one with future vision was Garnet, not Pearl or Amethyst.

However, the tall Gem could only hope in her mind that Stevonnie and Blake would be okay together and in the town unsupervised.

* * *

That night, I ran through the streets of Beach City.

I had absolutely no destination in mind as my feet pounded _pitter-pat_ down the coarse pavement and concrete of the roads and sidewalks, respectively. I breezed past building after building, not really paying attention much to landmarks or street names as I ran under streetlights, some of which were flickering, some of which were dim, and a very surprisingly low number of fully-functioning lamps. The night was cold and my muscles were starting to grow weary. I shivered as I ran, tugging along my duffel filled with Dust, until I came to a stop in an alley behind a building.

I slumped down the wall, panting and feeling as if I would give away every speck of Dust in my bag for just a teaspoon of fresh water. My body was covered in sweat, which now pretty much froze my skin solid because of the evaporation and the temperature outside. Slowly, I managed to come out of my painful, overexerted state, and found myself sipping cool night air instead of gulping it down to fuel my burning muscles. I looked up at the night sky, with its very faintly twinkling stars, and hissed in frustration, throwing a fist into the wall behind me. I pretended not to notice the fact that my hand had sunk about an inch into the brick wall.

 _Goddamn_ that _asshole_! Things were going just _fine_ , but some asshat clown who thought he could handle me decided to unravel my faunus identity in the middle of a party! What the hell? Couldn't anything go right for _one_ damn second in my life? First the White Fang, then the fiasco with Weiss before the Vytal Festival, and that shit with Yang and Adam!

Screw you, Kevin whatever-the-hell-your-stupid-last-name-is!

I was jostled out of my internal ranting when I heard something heavy and fleshy thump down onto something metallic down in the alleyway. My faunus ears, which were still uncovered, as I had not managed to retrieve my ribbon from the party, twitched in pure reflexive reaction to the sound, and I squinted down the alleyway. Faunus, being people that shared traits with certain animals, usually ended up with some form of night vision. I exploited that part of my genes as my eyes adjusted to the lack of light in the area.

Clear as day, I could see what had made that sound. I made out a little bulbous, furry form twitching on top of an aluminum trash can lid among the garbage someone had left out in the middle of the alleyway, making little squeaking and squealing noises. I wrinkled my nose in disgust a tiny bit before my mind had quite realized and recognized what I was looking at.

It was a rat. A damned rat, and a big one, too. I fought down the urge to pull Gambol Shroud from my duffel and skewer it, as that would probably create a ruckus that I _really_ didn't need right now. Instead, I focused on a more pressing need of my body. I needed water, and I needed it fast, or I might pass out from exhaustion. I'd seen it before, back in the 'Fang.

I stalked out of the alleyway and back into the somewhat-lit streets. There was a nearby drinking fountain, fashioned from really old-looking and half-rotted wood and some (hopefully) cleaner and newer metal, that I almost _sprinted_ to and guzzled down a gallon of water from. Not really that far from here, I could make out a store, definitely closed, that I could possibly use to my advantage. Making my way a little closer, I saw that it was a clothing store, with mannequins and signs in the glass windows showing off the latest fashion trends in the area, ranging from stylishly-torn blue jeans to fur coats that had more of a passing resemblance to clouds than jackets.

Perfect. If I managed to run in and "appropriate" a hat or beanie or something, I'd be able to interact with the rest of the world like a "normal" human being. My ears would be all but invisible underneath a little bit of fabric.

As much as I hated to use anything I picked up from the 'Fang, there wasn't much I could do otherwise at this point. I needed to disappear.

I scoped the place for a little bit, then slipped in through the employee backdoor, using a pinch of Burn Dust to melt away part of the lock. I didn't hear any alarms go off, but the business might've had a silent alarm. Nothing major, though, as I would be long gone before the authorities arrived.

The steel backdoor swung open with an agonizing shriek of protesting metal, and I plunged into the opaque darkness of the store.

* * *

Steven Universe sat his bed. A bowl of nachos rested in his lap, half-eaten and almost neglected. The beach house, or at least Steven's part of it, was bathed in shadow, with the window blinds closed and the lights off, save for the dynamically changing glow emanating from the television that Steven found himself still staring at.

It was playing through a rerun of Crying Breakfast Friends, which was, of course, one of Steven's favorite tv shows of all time. Something about the shared and individual despairs of each food item character just _spoke_ to the young Gem. However, there was just something missing.

Steven sighed, reached into the bowl and munched on another cheesy chip, and slumped over into spread-eagle position on his bed, staring up at the ceiling of the house. Steven heard the door to the house slam open. A click a second later caused the lights in the house blazing to life, which in turn caused Steven to scrunch his eyes shut.

"Oh dude!" floated up Amethyst's voice, followed by the purple Gem herself when she ascended the stairs to Steven's bedroom. "Are you _still_ moping about?" Steven grunted and turned over to face away from Amethyst. "Look, Steven, it's been a week since she ran away, but you can't just keep feeling down about it. It wasn't even your fault at all."

Amethyst reached out for the boy, but halted at the young Gem's next words.

"I _know_ it's not supposed to be my fault, but I don't know, I just feel like it _is_!" Steven had tears in his eyes as he looked back at Amethyst. "I mean was I just not good enough? She had nowhere else to go and she _still_ left!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Stee-man," Amethyst said, "It's not your fault, dude. You're, like, the nicest guy in the world. If Blake can't see that, then maybe we shouldn't have offered her a place to stay."

"You really think so?"

"I know so, guy. Hey, Pearl and Garnet are getting ready for a mission, and Garnet wants you to come along."

"Really?" Steven asked, "What for?"

Amethyst shrugged. "I dunno, but I trust Garnet's intuition. Anyway, back your stuff. We'll be goin' soon."

Amethyst walked back down the stairs, leaving a starry-eyed Steven behind.

It was just the thing that Steven needed to get his hopes up. Since _forever_ had he wanted to join his guardians on a mission, but they almost always shut him down. Whenever he _did_ go, it was always an exciting adventure filled with intrigue and excitement. The half-Gem quickly gathered some stuff in his cheeseburger-themed, shaped, and colored, backpack. Since the last outing with the food-themed item, he had learned to pack a little bit more sensibly, and had forgone the bringing bagels in favor of beef jerky and threw in a first aid kit, for good measure.

The Gem ran down the creaky stairs with vigor, then dashed over to the warp pad, where the rest of the Crystal Gems had waited for him.

"Do you have everything you need?" Pearl gently asked. Steven nodded in response.

"Let's go," said Garnet.

The four of them were instantly bathed in that familiar blue pillar of light that came with using the warp, and were soon whisked away from the beach house, leaving behind the wooden abode, empty and peaceful.

* * *

Vinchenza Morgan was bored out of her mind.

Sure, waiting on tables to help out her uncle Gary's ailing business was a proposition she was more than happy to help about, but it was just such a _chore_ to wait on so many guys who would come in and just do nothing but try to get her number. Sure, she tolerated some of the nicer and nicer-looking ones, but as a whole they were underwhelming and overbearing at best.

It didn't help that Vinchenza already had a boyfriend, either. She sincerely doubted that Ben would find the snide comments about her ass nearly as amusing as the customers did.

Vinchenza was currently carting away some the plates of what was supposed to be the last customer of the day when the front door to the little diner opened, its bell chiming to signal the entrance of someone who would eagerly give their money for heartstopping food.

Vinchenza spared a glance at the new customer before going to the back to drop of the dishes for the busboy to handle.

The customer was a girl. She was pale with waist-length ebony hair that leaked out from under a black baseball cap. She wore black pants and a crop top under a long white coat and carried a duffel bag which she let clatter to the ground when she took a seat at the counter. She looked to be in her late teens or her early twenties.

Vinchenza went into the back room to change out of her modest waitress uniform- short cream apron over a white dress shirt and black dress pants- into something more casual. The woman slipped on a pair of well-worn jeans and a plaid button-up shirt, then donned a fur-lined denim jacket. Ben had always gotten on her case about its impracticality in hotter weather, but honestly Vinchenza didn't really give a damn. She paid for it and it looked good, so why should it really matter that much? She could always drink more water to compensate.

As she half-expected, the girl was being pestered by one of the guys visiting the diner. It looked like he'd gone the classic route of getting a girl an apple pie, then going in for the kill, so to speak. It looked like he went in a little too early, though, as she looked wholly disinterested.

Vinchenza took it upon herself to intervene, for the girl's sake. She stormed over to the counter, where the guy was _still talking_.

"So you wanna go get a coffee or something later?" the guy said. He was a blond with a charming smile and a crisp clean suit. The sleazeball's name was Barney, an absolute ass who went around trying to pick up girls almost 24/7.

Vinchenza was about to tell the guy to buzz off, but to her delight, the girl beat her to the punch.

"Not interested. Go away." Short and sweet. Vinchenza liked this girl.

Now ordinarily, a guy like Barney would at least try to ask a girl out a couple more times before leaving, but something in the mystery girl's glare got him a'runnin' away. The mystery girl let out a groan and covered her face with her hands, probably a little too tired to eat the apple pie anyway.

Then again, she might leave it on principle. After all, that's what Vinchenza would do.

Vinchenza sat herself down next to the mystery girl, but before she could get in a word, the black-haired beauty addressed her.

"If you're here to get a date, I'll have you know I'm not interested."

Vinchenza was taken aback a little, but quickly recovered. "Sorry, but I really don't swing that way. Gonna eat that pie?" The girl shook her head. Vinchenza shrugged, then got to work on the dessert.

"Yeah," Vinchenza said through forkfuls of pie, "guys like Barney are real pieces of work. Don't let it bother ya too much and you'll be fine. The name's Vinchenza. Vinchenza Morgan, by the way."

The girl removed her hands from her face and looked straight at Vinchenza, giving her a look at her face- well proportioned, pretty enough to attract a guy like Barney and then some- and her nearly glowing amber eyes.

That wasn't really normal at all, but Vinchenza wasn't really one to judge. She probably wore custom colored contacts, which Vinchenza personally thought was really cool.

"I'm Blake. Blake Belladonna. It was nice to meet you," she supplied politely.

Vinchenza nodded, then noticed that Blake had glanced at the remnants of the apple pie she'd been eating.

"Hey, you hungry?"

"No." Blake seemed serious enough, but a quiet growl told Vinchenza all she needed to know. "Okay, maybe a little."

"Here, I'll pay," Vinchenza said, pulling her wallet from her purse. Blake looked up at her, panic clearly evident in her eyes.

"Oh no! I can pay for myself. I don't want to impose-" the girl tried to say before the waitress hushed her.

"Stop right there," Vinchenza said, "It's on me. I wouldn't touch anything that that sleazeball paid for anyway, if I was in your shoes. Here's a menu, order yourself something for those munchies, girl."

Blake nodded, then ordered a tuna sandwich with fries, a fruit cup, and a root beer. As the black-haired girl ate, Vinchenza tried to strike up a conversation, but managed to pry little more than short, clipped, one-word answers from her.

Eventually Blake finished wolfing down her meal and thanked both the cook- Vinchenza's uncle Gary- and Vinchenza for the food and the money, respectively, before making her way out of the diner.

Blake stepped onto the sidewalk outside the restaurant and took a nice, deep breath of the cool night air, her heeled boots tapping staccato on the pavement. She quickly turned and looked behind her when she heard the door chime as Vinchenza followed her outside.

Rolling her eyes at the waitress, she asked, "What do you want?"

Vinchenza raised an eyebrow at Blake. "Do I need a reason to stop and chat with a perfect stranger?"

"Uh, yeah, you kind of do."

"I digress," Vinchenza waved her off. "Besides, you look like you might need some help. Down on your luck?"

"How would you know?" Blake stared at the woman.

"Hon, you walked into a two-bit diner near closing time-"

Blake cut the older woman off, curtly saying, "Anyone can do that."

"-carrying a full duffel bag and without a ride waiting outside."

"Uhh, I walked here? I robbed a bank? You can't really prove much."

"Oh really?" Vinchenza confidently said, "I heard something metallic jingle around in there when you hauled it off. Hon, you ain't gonna want to carry that anywhere unless you absolutely needed to. You'd be better off leaving that at home."

Blake sighed. "So what? Why would you be so interested in my personal well-being?"

Vinchenza grinned. "I don't like seein' people down on their luck. Comes with workin' at a Salvation Army Centre every weekend. Why don't you come spend some time at my place? We could always use more hands on the farm. We're just a few miles out of town."

"That's... An awfully nice offer, Vinchenza Morgan," Blake hesitantly responded. "But I wouldn't want to be a burden. Besides, I'm a terrible farmhand."

"Then we can pay you! Besides, what're you good at? I'm sure we could find somethin' for you to do there."

Blake hummed in thought before giving an answer. "I can track and hunt pretty well, but I don't see how-"

Vinchenza's face blossomed into a wide smile. "That's perfect! We've been having an issue recently where _something_ 's been preying on our animals, leaving behind weird, maimed, or half-eaten remains behind," Vinchenzaa grimaced, remembering the gruesome scenes she sometimes came back home to. "We could pay you to hunt this thing down for us, and in the meantime you can get back on your feet! It's a win-win! Whaddaya say?" the exuberant woman finished, extending her hand out to the young huntress.

Blake visibly wrestled with the idea before snarling to herself. " _I'm going to regret this, aren't I_?" she mumbled to herself. "Alright, I'll do it. _But_ on the condition that I'll be leaving as soon as the job's done."

"That's swell! C'mon, new employee, my car's over there! I'll introduce you to everyone when we're there." The waitress practically skipped over to a beat-up blue truck sitting placidly in the Greasy Diner's parking lot. Blake sighed and shook her head before following the woman.

* * *

 **AN: Ooo, what's this? A double update?**

 **Edit: Goddammit FF I told you to save an updated version. I fixed it now, but damn.**

 **I went through a name change with those OC characters halfway into Chapter 5. I thought I fixed it when I uploaded the chapters, but I guess something went wrong. I apologize, I'm not usually that bad at writing, I promise.**


	5. Chapter 5: Catchup and Fries

**11/22/16**

 **Why did I do this to myself?! I have art and shit to do.**

 **Insert obligatory I don't own (except OCs), I don't make money disclaimer.**

* * *

Hmmm...

Interesting.

I think it might've been a cow, once upon a time. The skull was _kind of_ the right shape for it, but with half of the bones and meat missing from the body, it was a little harder to tell. Not that it really mattered much for my purposes, anyway.

I knelt down next to the rancid, bloody, rotting carcass, which turned out to be a really bad idea. I wrinkled my nose at the _stench_ of the thing. I grunted at it and held my nose in between my index finger and thumb. I tracked my eyes all over the scene before me, looking around for any clues as to my quarry's location.

There wasn't much. I stood in the middle of a sort-of clearing with dirt, packed down to nearly rock in hardness by grazing animals, pockmarked here and there with little tufts of verdant green grass. With the dirt as it was, there would be little evidence of tracks. Just my luck.

I sighed, brushed some dust off the jeans I'd borrowed from my benefactors, fixed my white t-shirt, adjusted Gambol Shroud on its strap on my back, and stretched, popping more than a few vertebrae with a relaxed sigh. I adjusted my hat, too, as my cat ears were starting to feel a little cramped up there.

"Hey, so how's it goin'? Got anything yet?"

I barely stopped myself from jumping out of my own damn skin when Vinchenza Morgan's voice made itself known from behind me. I clamped down on my instincts as well, preventing myself from activating my Aura in my brain's fight-or-flight mode.

"God, Vin," I huffed out, catching my breath, "Don't sneak up on people like that."

 _Yeah, like I was one to talk_.

I shook that thought out of my head. No time for that right now, Blake.

Vinchenza looked a little sheepish as she held her own nose. "Sorry about that, Blake. Anyway, do you have anything on that vermin that keeps doin' this?"

I looked back at the remains at my feet and sighed dejectedly. "Not much. Terrain's inadequate. No tracks visible, at least not anymore, and the site looks _relatively_ clean." I shook my head, "Not much I can do for right now."

Vinchenza grunted, folding her left arm under the one she was holding her nose with. "It's alright, Blake. Nothin' to be ashamed of. Damn bastard's been slippin' through our fingers like butter these past few days."

"I know!" I blurted out. "It's just... I feel like I should be able to _do_ something in this situation. I feel useless enough right now as it is."

Vinchenza marched up to me and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. "Hey, don't beat yourself up. Come on, lunch is ready. You look like you could use somethin' to eat."

I raised a brow at her. "But what about the creature? You know, the one you hired me about less than a week ago?"

Vinchenza waved it off. "Don't worry about it. It's probably not going to come when we're around, and anything here will squeal like a little girl if anything happens."

She marched back to the farmhouse, and I followed her. Reluctantly, I might add. I sure as hell didn't feel right about just leaving behind any semblance of progress behind, but as much as I hated to admit it, I had nothing to show for the hours, nay, nearly a _week_ of waiting, investigating, and snooping around I'd done at this farm.

Besides, lunch sounded great. I was starving my guts out after hours of jack and shit to show for my work that day.

* * *

Vinchenza and I stepped past a well-worn door and into the house. The wooden floorboards creaked softly under a bit of stress, but not enough to warrant any worry. The furnishings were a little shy of spartan, with mostly only the bare essentials necessary making an appearance, like a coffee table and carpet in the entrance. I knew that the bedrooms were more decorated, and the clean-ish appearance of the the entrance hall and the guest rooms was more for show than anything else. However- a sharp contrast to the rather sparse furniture- the walls of the entrance hall were positively _littered_ with various portraits, family photos, and images filled with smiles and still activity. It was meant to proudly display the good times that the people that lived here had, and it was meant to _show_.

We strolled through the house, heading for the kitchen/dining room when I felt a presence approaching me from behind. I crouched down as low as I could at the last second when I heard a soft whisper of wool against wood. I reached up and plucked a small giggling boy from the air and held him before me upside-down. He wore a pair of heavy wool socks on his feet- which explained the noise I'd heard-, cargo shorts, and a little black hoodie, whose hood fell around his close-cut auburn hair. He stared back at me with little mirthful, mischievous chocolate brown eyes.

Vinchenza kept moving, having already seen this song and dance for about a thousand damn times.

"Hey, Blake," Benedict "Benny" Carver, a young boy about six or seven years old, greeted me with an ear-splitting grin. Sure, he'd gone for my hat, and I nearly had a heart attack the first few times he'd tried to pull his little stunt, but over the past few weeks I'd gotten used to him inadvertently trying to expose my faunus cat ears for all earth to see. It was kinda cute, in a way. Not like he could really get me anytime soon anyway.

"Hey yourself," I replied with a small smile. Hey, shut up. You can't say no to a face _that_ happy all the time.

"So..." Benny continued, "What'chu up to now? Still lookin' for the cowmuncher?"

I grinned at Benny's goofy little nickname for the probably-nightmarish hellspawn monster that had been plaguing this place. "With a microscope. Turns out that it's a little harder to find than you think."

Benny giggled. "So," I began, "Do you want to get lunch or do you want me to keep holding you upside-down?"

"Lunch."

"Sure thing, kiddo."

I set him back down on the ground and together we made our way into the kitchen. Waiting for us there were Benedict "Ben" Carver, and Vinchenza Morgan. Benny's _much_ older brother was in the middle of placing two large platters, both covered in little sandwiches with toothpicks sticking out of them, on the dining table when he saw us come in and waved us over. Ben wore an apron over a worn old t-shirt and jeans held up with denim straps. His brown hair was long, unlike his brother's, and was neatly combed and styled, unlike Benny, who managed to make short hair unruly and messy.

"Excellent as always, babe," I caught Vinchenza whispering to her boyfriend, who muttered a hushed thank you in turn.

"Hello, Blake," Ben greeted in his typical deep baritone of a voice, "How goes the hunt today?"

I sighed, pulled over a chair, slumped down into it, and took a mini sandwich from a platter. "Not that great. Damn thing is too elusive. If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was _thinking_ about how to counter me," I explained before shoving the tuna-and-turkey slice sandwich in my mouth, followed closely by one of its comrades.

"You'll get it someday. I'm sure you will." I grunted noncommittally at that.

I was in the middle of another delicious mini-wich when I heard an odd noise.

My cat ears, even covered up and muffled, could pick up sounds decently enough on the relatively quiet property, and as such, even though the others couldn't hear it, I could faintly make out the squeals and screams of something in mortal terror and pain outside.

I swore under my breath, stuffed the last sandwich in my mouth, and made a break for the source of the noise, tearing through the house and its front door and pounding down the dirt path leading to the animal enclosures, searching for the source of the noises.

I didn't have to look very far. Lying dying on the ground was a white cow with black spots, its side roughly shredded open and spilling blood. And currently leaning over it was a monster.

The thing feasting on the insides of its bovine victim was a truck-sized monstrosity, covered in spikes and rippling, sinewy muscle underneath bluish-green skin. It looked like some sort of cross between a lion and a bear, with a mane of white hair and the stance and stature of a bear, which was made apparent when it reared up on its hind legs and looked directly in my direction.

I stood my ground and gritted my teeth as it roared and started to charge me, bounding on all four of its misshapen legs. I braced myself for its approach until it was right upon me and leapt upwards into a kicking backflip, driving the heels of my boots into what looked like its head, leaving behind a nearly picture-perfect clone of myself with my Semblance. Clone-me was speared through with a claw the size of my fist and my opponent reeled back in confusion and anger. I capitalized on the opening by creating another clone behind me, which I kicked away in order to redirect myself towards the creature. I landed on its neck and ran along the length of its body, swiping at its hide with Gambol Shroud using its cleaver. It wasn't a very long run, and yet for all my slashing, it didn't appear to sport any sort of wounds. The only time I made any progress was when my blade happened upon a strange, opaque teal stone sitting right in what would be the small of a person's back.

Damn, a toughened hide. I bared my teeth in a snarl.

I'd just have to adjust my strategy, then. I jumped off of my opponent and hit the ground rolling. When I came back up, I spun on my heel, smoothly unsheathed Gambol Shroud, and shifted it into its kusarigama form. My trusty weapon barked a few times as I fired its black, no-nonsense pistol component at my foe, peppering it with Dust-infused gunfire. It didn't do too much more than agitate it, but that's what I was counting on.

When its attention was refocused onto me, it immediately tried to charge me again. I braced myself for its advance, intending to leave behind a clone and slide underneath it, using Gambol Shroud to slingshot me into the air in order to get a good angle to hit that stone, which appeared to be a weak point, of sorts. However, when it finally neared, it ignored my clone in favor of grabbing me in one giant claw.

Shit. It could learn.

I gasped more in surprise than pain as it tried to crush me before flinging me away at a nearby tree. I smashed into it, feeling my Aura flare up in response and knocking the wind out of me and leaving me slightly disoriented; with my vision blurry and my movements sluggish.

I prepared to leap up and evade when it tried to rush at me again, but it wasn't necessary, for with a scream, full of defiance and rage, a red and black blur intercepted my foe. I blinked the blurriness out of my eyes and saw three figures battling the monster with both reckless abandon and undaunted skill. I suppressed a groan and swore under my breath as I realized that I recognized those figures.

They were the Crystal Gems: Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, and I was sure that Steven Universe wasn't far behind.

I wanted to leave right then and there, but I'd been housed, fed, and clothed by Vinchenza and the others to hunt down and kill this thing. I'd be damned if I was going to run away from this just to avoid a few familiar faces.

 _You'll just leave after, you know_ , nagged a voice in the back of my mind.

I waited for the right opportunity to assist. It took a little while for the opportunity to strike to present itself, as the three warriors ducked and wove around each other seamlessly, avoiding every clumsy strike the creature threw at them gracefully, like a trio of dancers. Finally, an opening appeared when the monster's claw struck Amethyst, who rolled with the strike to deflect most of its force. However, the purple Gem ran right into Pearl, who had not been expecting the sudden change in movement. They collided and tumbled away, raveled and tangled together in the former's mauve whips. That left Garnet wide open on her right side.

With a gunshot to propel it, I hurled Gambol Shroud into the fray. When it flew past our foe, I gave the ribbon a sharp tug, and my weapon came soaring back, slashing all over the monster's massive flank. It roared in agony, pausing a swipe against Garnet, who capitalized on the lull in its onslaught by throwing a haymaker in its face, staggering it. I sprinted back into the battle and poured Aura into my legs as I ran.

I leapt with all my might into the air and let go of Gambol Shroud. With a sharp battle cry, I chucked my weapon downward, forming a half-crescent with its arc and continuing it into three sharp circles, each of which collided with our opponent. Gambol Shroud finally pierced its thick hide on the last blow, and the monster exploded into a cloud of white smoke, not unlike a bag of flour being tossed into the air.

I was distinctly reminded of Ruby and Weiss' explosion on the first day at Beacon, and smirked.

I withdrew Gambol Shroud with a flick of my wrist and landed in a crouch.

I then surveyed my handiwork. When the smoke cleared, the only thing left of the monster was the stone that had been embedded in its back. Garnet walked past me without a word and somehow formed a burgundy bubble around it. With a gesture like pressing a button on the top, she made it disappear into thin air, probably whisked off to places unknown.

Meanwhile, behind us, Amethyst and Pearl finished sorting themselves out and were starting to make their way towards us. Well, that wouldn't do.

I raised both Gambol Shroud and its sheath and pointed them at the Crystal Gems. The sheath for Garnet and Gambol Shroud for Amethyst and Pearl.

"Not so fast, you three!" I commanded, willing my voice across the distance with a little bit of Aura poured into my throat.

Amethyst held up her hands in surrender, followed by a nonplussed Garnet. Pearl just looked irate.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," said Amethyst, "Don't get all angry at us, dude. We've just been huntin' down that Gem monster that you just _annihilated_ , by the way."

"What Amethyst is saying is correct, Blake," added Pearl, "Finding you had nothing to do with our excursion out here." I squinted at her for a second, not quite believing her shit, before Garnet caught me off guard.

"Steven, it's safe to come out, now!"

"Okay!" came the faint, if enthusiastic, reply. I shot a glare at Garnet. If she noticed, she didn't look it. I glanced at the treeline. Moving out of the foliage, there jogged up a young boy with a red shirt with a yellow star, a pair of jean shorts, and a backpack that looked like it belonged in a fast-food restaurant. He started off with a march, then looked up at us, then broke into a full-on sprint.

"BLAAAAAAAKE!" I could hear echoing across the distance between us. He tripped over a rock halfway to us, but he got back up and kept running.

I staggered a bit when Steven Universe tackled me in a hug. He looked up at me, making direct eye contact. His expression was one of intense elation and I could see tears forming in the corners of his eyes. His face was split in an overjoyed grin that could melt an iceberg.

"Blake!" Steven said, "What're you doing here?"

"... I could ask you the same thing."

"Hey, Blake? Are these your friends?"

I looked back in the direction of the house and found Vinchenza, Ben, and Benny all standing on the path leading back to the farm home. Vinchenza and Ben looked worried, while Benny was practically vibrating in his shoes.

"... Not exactly, Vin," I replied.

"That was so _cool_!" exclaimed Benny, jumping in excitement.

"Yes," Ben agreed, the soft-spoken young man giving his younger brother a glance. "However, it would be wise to ensure your safety. Are you all alright?"

"Don't worry about us," stated Garnet.

"I'm fine, Ben."

"But-"

"I said I was _fine_." I shut him up with that statement. I kinda felt bad, but the guy would've probably exacerbated the situation. I sighed and carefully, slowly, took Gambol Shroud, sheathed it, and clipped it to my back.

I then attempted to separate myself from the young Steven Universe, who only relented after a long second of gentle pushing.

"Anyway, your problem's been taken care of, Vin," I said. "I'll get my things and be on my way."

I marched back into the house, brushing past Vinchenza and the Benedicts on my way. They didn't say anything. I guess they were just too stunned by what had happened. Maybe they couldn't believe that I'd be leaving so soon. Hell, I would if I was in anyone else's shoes.

Inside, I gathered my belongings. It wasn't much, just my slightly-diminished supply of Dust and ammo for Gambol Shroud along with a few knicknacks that I'd picked up. I packed everything back into my duffel bag and turned to walk out the door when I came face-to-face with a pouting Vinchenza.

"And just _where_ do you think you're goin', young lady?"

"Away," came my curt answer.

"What about your reward?"

"... Keep it. You're going to need it to replace the livestock that thing ate. You've already done enough for me."

"W-Where will you go?" she sputtered.

"Somewhere. I-"

"Look," Vinchenza interrupted, "I've seen too many young guys and gals like you that think that they can go off and do whatever they want. Do you even _know_ where you're goin' to go?"

No, I didn't. Shit.

"I actually might be able to help with that." I turned to the doorway, seeing the figure of Pearl step through, her poise and gait temporarily ruined by the door's comparatively smaller frame. She made her way over to us.

"And what is it that you think you'd be able to help with?" I asked, somewhat scornfully.

Pearl rolled her eyes and lit up her gemstone, drawing a gasp of surprise from Vinchenza. "While you were off being a... bounty hunter, we were able to find something."

Pearl's gemstone suddenly let out a projection, eliciting a wide eyed look of shock from me and wonder from Vinchenza. Displayed, clear as day, was a three-dimensional image of a planet, covered in huge, vivid blue oceans separated by five distinct continents and overlaid by great, swirling clouds. I didn't even need the little figure of a half-shattered moon to know that I was looking at Remnant. Sure, there was no such thing as a picture of my world taken from space, but I'd studied enough maps to recognize the continents- Sanus, Anima, Solitas, Menagerie, and the abandoned dragon-shaped landmass in the northwest.

Pearl had evidently seen my shell-shocked expression, and responded with a shit-eating grin. "Impressed?" she boasted, "We found some half-corrupted files, encrypted galactic coordinates, and star logs referencing planet 1901-E 51, with a peculiarly _shattered_ moon."

"I... I..." I whispered, staring at the projection. Satisfied (the smug was real), Pearl made it disappear and I shook myself out of my reverie.

"I thought so. Come back with us, Blake. We're the only ones on Earth who can get you back to your home."

* * *

I wacked away yet another irritating bush with Gambol Shroud as the Crystal Gems, Steven, and I marched through the forest, hacking away at emerald-green leaves and foliage. We walked along a mildly-cleared part of the landscape that clearly wasn't a path traveled much at all; the only indication that it had been walked being four sets of footprints heading back the way we came.

After what felt like hours of hiking through what was basically untamed wilderness, We finally stumbled upon a teal-colored, multifaceted platform that I recognized as a Warp Pad.

So _that_ was how they'd come across me so quickly. I _had_ been moving as much as I could, hitching rides and taking buses, but I guess all that shit was for naught when the Crystal Gems could find me anywhere in the country.

We stepped onto the warp pad and soon we were all enveloped in a shimmering beacon of towering light. We floated through the Warp Stream as gravity decided it had enough of the Crystal Gems' shit and removed itself from the laws of physics. Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl handled the horrible tragedy of gravity with grace and poise, while Steven and I hovered and floated rather embarrassingly.

Speaking of the Crystal Gems, none of them seemed too keen at all to strike up any sort of conversation. Even the relatively talkative Steven Universe and Amethyst were keeping their mouths shut.

After an eternity in silence, the Warp Stream vanished, giving way to Steven's beach house. I fell on my ass (again) when gravity became reacquainted with whatever was left of the corpse of the laws of physics. I swore under my breath as I struggled for five years to get back on my feet, rubbing my sore behind and back in the process.

Steven and I stepped off of the Warp Pad, yet Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl didn't. I whirled around to face them, only to find the three Gem women disappearing back into a Warp Stream without a word.

Son of a bitch.

Steven tugged on my coat sleeve and I turned to look at him. He stepped back and nervously let out a little chuckle.

"Ha ha... So... You left this back when you ran off," he said, pulling a little black strip of cloth from his pocket. My eyes widened at the sight of my old bow. Steven sheepishly scratched the back of his head, unaware of the way my hands felt like chunks of frozen ice.

"So... What exactly happened that night, Blake? The night of the rave, I mean."

Shit.

* * *

 **AN: Hey, I'm not dead! Why the FUCK can't I write, though?! Jesus, my chapters are hella short and all, too.**

 **Been tons of busy with school and shit, so sorry about that. I also want to say that I have decided on a name for this fic! Suggested by a Guest, this fic will now be called _Cat's Eye_ , which fulfills more puns than I have ever wanted. Thank you, anonymous internet man/woman. **

**I also want to say that I was wrestling with a lot of different concepts for these two chapters, and I hope that you guys like it. If not, then offer some criticism, please! Nothing too venomous, I hope.**

 **Reminder that I still don't have a beta reader, and I would very much appreciate it if someone helped me in that position.**

 **Also, if you're interested in the status of my fic _And Thus the Huntsmen Fought There_ , there is an update about it in my bio. It's not going to be something you like, but it's something I need to say. **

**Remember to Read, Review, and Favorite. Peace out for now.**

 **-AnonymousInsomnia**


	6. Chapter 6: The Truth

**12/25/2016, about 12:12 AM**

 **Hello all you beautiful people, and welcome to my newest chapter of this haphazardly-terrible story o' mine!**

 **I hope I don't give you too many nightmares of shitty writing, but here we go!**

 **(Damn, I need a coffee)**

* * *

"So... What exactly happened that night, Blake? The night of the rave, I mean."

For a second, I considered sprinting past Steven and running for it. Sure, it wouldn't really be ideal, but I figured that I might be able to steal a car or something and jump town. I mean, I had somewhat of a grasp on how Dust-powered engines worked; how hard could it be to work a gasoline or diesel one?

Then I remembered: I had no leads as to how I was getting back to Remnant. I'd be stuck running from my problems for Dust knows how long and getting nowhere. I had no leads... Other than the Crystal Gems. I needed to stick around if they were going to help me, whether I liked to or not.

Begrudgingly, I slowly took off my hat, shaking my hair out of its funk due to the amount of time it had been stuck under the accessory.

Steven let out a gasp when he saw my faunus cat ears twitch, free from anything to hide them.

I let out a tired sigh and faced away from the young boy.

"Steven," I began, "There's a lot that I told you about Remnant, the day we met, and how I told you that humanity was stuck in a never-ending fight with the Grimm. However, there's another group that was thrown into the mix. It's not just humans versus the Grimm, it's the Grimm versus humanity... and the faunus."

I stopped, crossed my arms, and took a deep breath before continuing. "The faunus are a separate race from humanity, and we looked somewhat... different from them, but the Grimm was a threat that we faced all the same. It should have been enough, but pretty early on, the humans of the world came to despise the faunus. They kept us out of villages, towns, cities, countries. They treated us like slaves and subjected us to hate. To them, we were nothing more than a bunch of damn _animals_ , and yet the difference between us was little more than a tail, claws, fur, or a _pair of little fuzzy ears_."

"Eventually, it all came to a head. War broke out between the kingdoms of Remnant, and no one, especially not the faunus, was safe. As with most conflict, a _triumphant_ _victor_ was declared, and to them went the spoils. As for the faunus?" I gave a little hollow laugh, "We were shoved on a near-inhospitable island as far away from the rest of the world as we could get and told to _make do_."

"We wanted to be treated like equals, so many of us, including me and my parents, decided to protest against that injustice. The White Fang was an organization dedicated to peace, but it was slow going with our leader-" _Dad_... "-in charge. So someone else stepped in and we started to get what we were asking for the whole time. But we didn't do it through peace or understanding or respect. No. We got it through fear and terroristic acts."

"So I left and tried to make a new life for myself. And I did it all with the help of a _little black bow_ to hide who I really was." I turned to address Steven directly, "So do you _now_ see why... why..." My voice trailed off when I saw the kid.

Steven, whose expression I remembered had been one of shock, surprise, and a little bit of astonishment, now wore a truly telling appearance. From his eyes gushed little streams of tears and he looked at me with a look of part genuine concern, horror, and most of all, a timid warmth.

Before my own shock at this reaction had worn off, Steven already had his arms around me in an embrace. On reflex, I had stiffened up at the contact.

"Blake," Steven said, his voice small, "I know what kind of person you are, really. You are nice, smart, and a whole lot of other things. But above all, you are a person. So are all of those other faunus guys and gals that you mentioned." Steven looked at me straight in the eye as he finished, "And no one should take that away from you."

Was it pure, unashamedly cheesy? Yes. Didn't change the fact that something in Steven's voice told me it was purely genuine.

"Thanks," was all I could really say.

Steven broke off the hug and dried his eyes with his arm. He smiled innocently and said, "Besides, those cat ears are really cute, Blake!"

"Hey!" I snapped indignantly as I became distinctly aware of my face reddening, "I was one of the top ten freshman students back at Beacon! I am not cute!"

"Whatever you say!" Steven replied, teasing. "I'm just happy that you're being honest. Not just with me, but with yourself, too! Until you go back home, I know you'll be a welcome addition to Beach City!"

"Umm, yeah, about that..." I tried to say, before being interrupted by the soft, yet commanding sound of a throat being cleared. I turned and saw Garnet standing at the entrance to the inner Crystal Temple. Despite her size, I noticed that the door still dwarfed the imposing dark-skinned warrior. Just _what_ was that thing built to accomodate?

"Blake," she said.

"Uh," I just as eloquently said back. "How much did you hear?"

"It wouldn't have mattered how much I was here for," she cryptically "answered".

Damn, it was as if Ozpin had never disappeared.

"Anyway, it's time you were informed of what we've found."

* * *

After a quick "see you later" to Steven, Garnet led me deep into the sprawling network of seemingly-impossible rooms that made up the Temple. We only passed through a couple of relatively-mundane halls (though they were filled with numerous titanic crystals and glittering stones) until we came to our destination.

The room Garnet had brought me to was little more than a large cavern. Its walls were covered in strange, vein-shaped stony protrusions, and at the center was a large, circular lava pit. It was naturally sweltering as a result.

However, what really stood out were the innumerable, gently-floating, multicolored bubbles above us. Contained within each of the veritable rainbow of spheres was a vibrantly-colored gemstone, somehow suspended within the center of each bubble.

Pearl and Amethyst stood, arguing over something at the center of the room, around the lava pit, evidently waiting for Garnet and I to return. Garnet merely spoke Pearl's name once to get their attention, and they both ceased their squabbling, having turned their focus to the two of us.

"So," Pearl began, merely giving a passing glance at my faunus ears, much to my relief, "I do believe that you may have some questions about-"

"Shut it," I interrupted, somewhat irritably. "If you want me to hang around and help you- or for you to help me- you're going to have to be absolutely, one-hundred-percent honest and straightforward with me. If not, I'll have to leave, and that's that."

Pearl made a face like she'd eaten something bitter; Amethyst snickered at it. Garnet remained ever the stoic.

"Fine," Pearl said, her voice taking on a faint edge, "You will have full disclosure to any and all relevant information we find. Is that agreeable, _Blake_?"

I nodded. Begrudging as her annoying-as-hell assistance was, it was assistance nonetheless.

Pearl closed her eyes and her Gem started to glow. It soon projected the spherical image of Remnant, like I'd seen before at the Carver farm. "Well, it appears that while we've found your world, there's been a bit of an... unusual occurance," Pearl explained. "The Royal Diamond Archive has an exceedingly comprehensive database of observed, discovered, and... visited planets, with entries on things such as wildlife, geography, and kindergarten viability."

"Kindergarten?" I asked. "What, like before preschool?"

"Kindergarten is where Gems are made," supplied Garnet.

"Ah." That made sense. Kindergartens would probably be very important if that was the only way you could get more impossible, magical warrior amazons, indeed.

"Regardless of Homeworld naming standards, as well as their general distaste for any information besides that of geography and geology," Pearl continued, "Homeworld has always maintained one piece of information on _every_ one of their archived worlds: galactic coordinates."

"Because if you don't know where it is, there's no point of knowing how to conquer it."

"Precisely, Garnet! However, there remains a mystery about your world, Blake."

"And that is?" I asked. I was starting to get pretty pissed at Pearl's ability to avoid the question at this point.

"1901-E 51 has absolutely no information!" Pearl replied. "There's absolutely no information about it beyond mere tidbits about its geography and wildlife, along with almost nothing about its celestial data! It's an enigma!"

"Wait, hold up," I raised a hand to stop her. "So you're telling me that you know _nothing_ about how to get me home?!"

"... As of right now, no," Pearl hesitantly said. At least she had the decency to look like she got caught with her hand in the cookie jar. "But we _do_ have reason to believe that we will be able to get more information out of this predicament soon!"

"And what makes you think you can say that?!"

"Call it... a little intuition. We'll find out exactly why Homeworld neglected your planet in the database soon enough," said Garnet, coolly, as she adjusted her sunglasses-visor.

"Whoa, chill out," piped up Amethyst, who, until now, had been silent through the entirety of this meeting. "Look, you don't have a lot of options. We're your best bet to get you home, girl."

I sighed heavily, feeling resignation creep into my bones like a milkshake being sucked through a straw. "It looks like you're going to be staying in Beach City for a while, Blake Belladonna," Garnet stated.

Well that was obvious.

* * *

Amethyst was kind enough to lead me back to the house when our little "talk" was finally over. Garnet and Pearl had stayed behind to discuss... something probably really damn important while Amethyst volunteered to lead me back. It wasn't because I was feeling a little overwhelmed, though that was what I was feeling.

It was because I was so utterly, perplexedly Dust-damned lost in the Temple that I'd lose my mind in the time it took to get Ruby to inhale a cookie.

Amethyst kindly opened the door for me. I thanked her as I stumbled through the entryway. The purple Crystal Gem descended back into the bowels of the Temple, closing the door behind us.

"Hi, Blake!" Steven called from the upper level of the house. "How'd it go?"

"Not great," I replied as I flopped onto the sofa. Damn I was drained.

Steven hummed. "Well, grumpy cat-" (I wasn't going to dignify that with a response) "- it sounds like you need to relax, y'know? Just... go with the flow for a while, alright? Pearl can make us some tea later, and I'll order some pizza for dinner! How's _Fish Stew Pizza's_ fish lover's special sound?"

It sounded like heaven, but I wasn't about to mention that. I had a _reputation_ to uphold, dammit! So instead of answering with words, I answered with vaguely irritated-sounding grunts before I passed out on those plush, rich, velvety sofa cushions. Mmmm.

* * *

When I finally roused myself from sleep, it was in response to a pounding on the door to the beach house that sounded like the horrible, grinding, ear-raking noise of a jackhammer.

"I'll get it!" announced Steven as he raced down the staircase as fast as his legs could carry him.

I bolted upright, immediately ran a hand through my hair, and I scrambled over to the kitchen counter as soon as I felt fur graze my fingertips. Just my Dust-damned luck that I'd been too tired to remember to tie my bow back on over my ears before I went out like a light. If I remembered correctly (and I did), my ribbon was lying on the counter. I swiftly scooped it up and deftly looped it around my faunus ears, smoothly tying it into a simple knot with motions I'd committed to memory long before coming to Beacon.

Just in time, too. Steven opened the door, revealing Jenny, who wore a uniform bearing the symbols and name of _Fish Stew Pizza_. She hefted a large square red delivery bag emblazoned with the same name as her uniform from a strap hanging off her shoulder. It seemed that she was the delivery girl for the small business, and that that was her business tonight- I recalled Steven inquiring me about getting a pizza before I clocked out. She was flanked by Buck and Sour Cream, who probably had just hitched a ride from her, given that any good delivery person would need transport, like a conveniently large car.

"Jenny! Buck! Sour Cream!" Steven greeted, "How's it hangin'?"

"Yo, whaddup, little dude," said Buck, ruffling Steven's curly locks.

"Got you your pizza," Jenny said with a grin.

"S'up, Steven," Sour Cream said, "You doing all right?"

"I'm doin' ay-okay!" replied Steven, probably with a smile that matched the intensity of the sun. "But check out who came back!" He turned, stepped off to the side, and pointed at me. I gave a timid little wave to the trio of teens that stood in the middle of the doorway, inwardly using every goddamn swear word I could think of to chastise myself for letting down my guard.

"Oh hey, it's-," began Buck.

"Blake!" interrupted Jenny, "Goodness girl, where did you _go_?"

"Yeah, man," added Sour Cream, "You said you were sticking around for a while, but you left during the rave and vanished for a month." He shook his head, "Not cool, man."

"Uhh, Steven?" I said, giving the young boy a sideways glance.

"You can tell them, Blake!" he cheerfully responded. "They're cool."

"I'm not so sure..."

"Hey wait!" Jenny sounded a tad miffed by now. "Tell us about _what_?"

"Yeah, it's not cool to keep your friends out of the loop." If Ruby or Yang were here, they'd probably agree wholeheartedly with Buck's sentiment.

Yet Steven was still that ever-present ray of sunshine in my new life on Earth.

"Seriously, Blake!" Steven said, because if at first you don't succeed, try again. "They're good! Most everyone in town won't mind at all!" Well he had a point. Amethyst _did_ go into town and barely anyone batted an eye when she did weird shit, so maybe they were good people after all.

"Yeah, we got your back!" Do you really, Jenny?

"Agreed."

"Word."

Wait a second... "Don't you have other deliveries to do, Jenny?"

The dark-skinned teen waved her hand off dismissively. "Steven here's the last order tonight. We've got time."

I sighed, "Then you'd better come in. You might want to be sitting down for this."

The trio of carefree teens took that opportunity to crash into the house. Jenny set down her delivery bag with care that measured somewhere between fine china and favorite stuffed toy. Buck reclined on the sofa, crossing his legs and generally acting like a mob boss come home, while Sour Cream merely sat and started tapping away at his phone for a second before slipping an earphone into his left ear. Steven rushed into the kitchen, having relieved the delivery bag of its last pie, and set to work putting out slices for all of us.

Meanwhile, I paced relentlessly back and forth like a metronome in the middle of the house. How was I going to explain that I wasn't a "normal" teenager? How was I going to explain that I was a faunus? How was I going to explain that I was from a different _planet_? Hell, I could hardly believe that last one myself the first few days I'd spent on earth! I finally stopped wearing a trench into the floor when Steven- bless him- delicately thrust a plate with a helping of pizza with a winning smile and started handing out portions to the others.

This was it, then. If I didn't reveal my secret, they would just hound me for the rest of the night, and if I _still_ didn't, they would hound me for the rest of the time I spent at Beach City, which was turning out to appear to be a long-ass time. I took a quick bite of the gratifyingly tuna-and-salmon-and-snapper flavored pizza to steel my nerves and took a breath to collect my thoughts.

"Okay," I began, "You guys _must_ have noticed a few things that were... off about me for a while now." I received a few nods. I had their attention. Whether or not that was a good thing was another thing entirely. "I'll start with the obvious. You've seen my eyes. From what I gather, amber is not exactly a natural eye color here. You've probably assumed that I am wearing contacts of some kind, right?" More nods. "Well, I'm not. Where I'm from, this, as well as pink, lilac, and red, is perfectly normal."

"For real?" piped up Jenny, "That's amazing!" She took a bite of pizza, then scrunched her face slightly at what was probably the taste.

"Pretty cool," added Buck.

"Could save my cousin a lot of money," said Sour Cream.

"But that's not all," I continued. "I've told you that I go to Beacon Academy, but I never told you what kind of school it was." To emphasize my point, I reached for Gambol Shroud on my back and unsheathed it, revealing the gunblade in all its glory. A few eyebrows raised and a couple of eyes widened, but beyond that there was little reaction to my trusty weapon. "Beacon was a Huntsman Academy. The best of the best. If you went there, you dedicated your life to the extermination of the Creatures of Grimm and the defense of humanity." To emphasize the point, I twirled Gambol Shroud in a lazy slash through the air and smoothly sheathed the blade.

No, I'm not showing off, what're you talking about?

Buck raised his hand, almost as if he had returned to a classroom. "What's a 'Creature of Grimm'?" he asked with the barest hint of curiosity present in his tone.

Well, here came the _real_ moment of truth.

"Well, here's the thing: I'm from another world," I said. "And on Remnant, humanity has faced a neverending struggle against unrelenting monsters of darkness and hatred. Huntsmen and Huntresses are humanity's first, and in many cases, only, defense against them. We face an everlasting battle for our very right to every inch of dirt under our very feet outside the heavily-fortified kingdoms at the center of civilization."

A fog of silence descended upon the inhabitants of Steven's beach house until Jenny shattered it like a brick annihilating a window.

"And you expect anyone to actually _believe_ that?"

I raised an eyebrow at her. I mean, it does sound ridiculous when you say it out loud, but it was the truth nonetheless.

"Yeah, bummer, man," chimed in Sour Cream.

"We _were_ worried about you and we wanted to know if you were going to be all right," added Buck, "but it's not cool to lie to your friends like that, no matter how long you know them."

The three of them got up to leave. Sour Cream and Buck thanked Steven for the pizza, while Jenny fumed. I shrugged and sat on a stool at the kitchen counter. What I had said was the truth as much as ants made hills. If they didn't believe it, it was fine by me so long as they wouldn't bother me about it.

Which was why my hand met my face when Steven decided to hop down from his loft, hollering the names of our departing guests.

"Wait! Guys!" he exclaimed, "Blake's telling the truth! She even has proof!"

"No I don't!" I called from the counter, not looking at Steven.

"Yes you do!" Oh God, I could hear his pout from a mile away.

"Wait. Hold on a minute," said Jenny, confusion now littering her voice, "What're you talking about, Steven?"

I sighed. "You're not gonna leave me be, are you?"

"Nope!" Of course not. What else would Steven Universe be if not persistent? I undid the knot on my bow, fully aware of our guests' eyes glued to my every movement, and revealed my feline faunus ears. Thinking back on it, I'll bet it wasn't too unlike carefully removing the wrapping from a gift. I felt them twitch in response to the open air they were finally allowed to be in again and they immediately picked up the stunned gasps of disbelief that surrounded me.

"It was never _just_ humanity against the Grimm. We faunus had existed since the beginning, and we've always been a part of the struggle," I half-explained. I really didn't want to spout the history of my race twice in a day. It was honestly exhausting at times.

"So you're telling the truth," said Sour Cream. Of course I am, Captain Obvious.

"Honesty," said Buck. "I dig it."

"Oh my gosh!" exclaimed Jenny. "Those ears are _so_ cute! How'd you get them?! You have to tell me!" That was... a bit unexpected.

I rose from the stool and made my way to the screen door, giving little more than a passing glance at my ribbon, now lying discarded on the kitchen counter. The others easily parted the way for me once I half-heartedly explained that I wanted some fresh air.

"...Um, Jenny," I heard Steven faintly say after the door closed. "Uh, how do I explain this...?"

* * *

It was a while before someone decided to try and talk to me again. I'd already marched down from the beach house, forgoing my heeled boots along the way since the sand would ruin them, to the dramatically more peaceful beach. I'd walked further on, to a more out-of-the-way part of the shore, my steps blending into each other as my mind relinquished rational thought in favor of a soup of individually fragmented trains of logic. I kept myself occupied like that for a while until my foot dipped into the cool ocean water. By then, I'd already wandered far enough to be free from prying eyes, so I figured that I'd stop to have a moment of peace.

Steven and the others would doubtlessly come for me by the time they finished their little talk, so I had some time to kill until them.

I drew Gambol Shroud from my back and thrust it into the loose sand, sheath and all, then I unsheathed my weapon, it smoothly sliding out of its metallic scabbard with a satisfying rasp of metal rubbing against metal. A flick of a recessed switch later and Gambol Shroud collapsed itself into its kusarigama shape with a series of soft clicking and clanking sounds.

Back in the White Fang, whenever I had to wait on someone to make a decision, whether it be on a big decision or something on my behalf, I'd write to keep my mind off of the more... unpleasant aspects of my life in the organization. It wasn't anything much, just a few short little stories based on ideas that would randomly pop into my head like popcorn. However, I didn't have a pen and paper right at that moment, so I instead decided to draw something.

Using Gambol Shroud's blade as a makeshift brush, I started scribbling symbols. Grooves met straight and curved lines and various simple shapes as I lost myself for a little while in my doodling.

It wasn't until a soft cough interrupted my final drawing that I finally returned to reality. Scribbling in the final line, I stood up, brushed off some sand from my clothes, and faced Jenny and Steven, who stood behind me. At least Jenny had the decency to look sheepish.

"Hey, uh, so, um," Jenny eloquently said, refusing to meet my eyes. She groaned before continuing, "Sorry. Blake, I just wanna say that I'm sorry about what I said earlier. Steven explained everything to me, Buck, and Sour Cream." He did, did he? I didn't blame him for it, though. They needed to know, so they needed to know.

"It's fine," I dismissed.

"Yeah..." Jenny muttered. "So... We good?" she said, extending her hand.

I looked at it for a second before taking it and giving it a good shake. "We're good."

"Say..." Steven spoke up, pointing at my doodles with a quizzically raised eyebrow. "What are these?"

I turned and appraised my handiwork. I'd drawn eight symbols in the sand, all arranged more or less randomly: a blazing heart, a burning rose, a perfect snowflake, a blooming flower, a blossoming lily, a crackling hammer, a set of arcs, and a spear crossed over a shield. I felt my mouth curl into a smile at the images, at least until a stray wave swept away the spear and shield, the rose, and the flower into nothingness.

"They're a reminder of who I left at home. Nothing more."

* * *

 **AN: I'm not sure exactly how I feel about this, but given exactly how little time I've had to myself this month, it's a wonder I've managed to get this out and edited by Christmas.**

 **By the way, shoutout to CrazyQuilava for agreeing to beta-read this! I hope to work with you on my inane ramblings for _quite_ some time in the foreseeable future. **

**Anyways, Merry Christmas to all! I probably won't be doing much writing in the next couple of weeks though as I got more games and I have Boy Scout merit badges to do and I actually have some damn motivation for learning how to model, rig, and animate in Blender now!**

 ***Party popper noises and confetti***

 **See you guys and gals later. Don't forget to Review and Favorite, and I'll catch you later.**

 **-AnonymousInsomnia**


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